(AFP) - Paris Saint-Germain, who played with ten players throughout the second half, was satisfied with the dismissal of its Spanish defender Sergio Ramos, in a goalless draw with its humble host Reims, Saturday, in the tenth stage of the French Football Championship .

Despite being satisfied with one point, the French capital team moved away from the lead, taking advantage of Marseille's sudden loss at home to Ajaccio 1-2, before their match in the "Classico" next week.

Saint-Germain has 26 points, 3 points ahead of Marseille, but Lorient, third and the surprise of the season, can narrow the gap to one point from the leaders if it beats Brest on Sunday.

Saint-Germain played the match in the absence of its Argentine star, Lionel Messi, who suffers from a slight calf injury, and his coach, Christophe Galtier, preferred to rest him before the return match against Benfica in the Champions League next week.

Messi had asked to be substituted in the final minutes of his team's match against Benfica (1-1) in the Champions League on Wednesday, suffering from a slight calf injury, following the intervention of one of the opponent's players.

"Leo will rest. He will return to training Sunday and Monday before the return match against Benfica," Galtier said in a press conference on the eve of the match. Brazilian star Neymar also sat on the benches of the reserve players before participating in the last half hour. As for Kylian Mbappe, the footballer with the highest income, according to Forbes magazine, he participated mainly after recovering from a sore throat.

Reince was a stubborn match for the French capital team and played without any inferiority complex in the face of a team that excels him in all fields.
Fabian Royce almost opened the scoring when he fired a powerful ball, which was blocked by Reins goalkeeper Yavan Diouf (14). Then Diouf intervened to stop Mbappe alone in the 33rd minute, after a deep pass from Spaniard Gerard Soler.

The referee expelled Sergio Ramos, who intercepted one of the Reims players as he advanced towards the goal, and quickly raised the second in his face a few seconds later, perhaps because the player directed obscene phrases towards him in the 41st minute, so that his team completed the match with ten players.

Consequently, Ramos received his twenty-first red card in his career in the French and Spanish leagues, according to the "Opta" statistics website, that is, 7 more cards than any other defender in the five major European championships.

The second half did not witness real opportunities on the part of the two sides, as each of them scored one point.

Marseille suffered its first loss this season in the league, by suddenly falling at home to Ajaccio 1-2.

At the Velodrome stadium, and unlike their impressive display against Sporting Portugal (4-1) in the Champions League in the middle of the week, the hosts made a very bad show despite opening the scoring through team captain Dimitri Payet from a penalty kick after a handball inside the area after a quarter of an hour had passed to score. His 100th goal in the colors of his team.

However, Congolese Bevek Musetti Omo equalized with a creeping shot (25), before Marseille's Argentine player, Leonardo Balleridi, gave Ajaccio the victory by scoring the second goal, a mistake in his own goal (47).

Marseille's new Croatian coach, Igor Tudor, threw three new strikers in the second half, the Colombian Luis Soares, the Moroccan Amine Harith and the Senegalese Bamba Dieng, without any of them being able to equalize at least.

Tudor commented on his team's loss, saying, "We did not expect not to lose throughout the season, but it is certainly difficult to lose at home against the bottom of the standings," stressing that he is "very angry" at the present time.
"We must learn the lesson, raise our heads and look forward," he added.
As for Payet, he said, "We started the match very well, but without any reason, and after we opened the scoring, we slackened a bit, so the opposing team took advantage of the situation."
Ironically, Ajaccio had only scored 5 goals in its first nine matches in the league, where it ranks eighteenth.
On the other hand, Marseille is waiting for two strong matches next week, as it will visit Sporting in the second leg, and then play the El Clasico match against Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday.