Neymar was close to his brilliant best as he gave Paris Saint-Germain a 1-0 home victory against bitter rivals Marseille in Ligue 1 on Sunday as the champions ended a three-match winless streak.
Neymar found the back of the net on the stroke of half-time to put leaders PSG on 29 points from 11 games, three ahead of second-placed Lorient.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.)
Marseille, who had Sauel Gigot sent off midway through the second half, are fourth on 23 points, one behind Lens who they host next weekend.
PSG had drawn their previous three games in all competitions.
Amine Harit‘s curled shot from 18 metres was parried away by Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 23rd minute as Marseille upped the pace after a timid start.
PSG hit back five minutes later when Kylian Mbappe‘s fierce shot was tipped over the bar by Pau Lopez.
The Marseille keeper, who had also denied Mbappe early on, was fortunate to see Lionel Messi‘s free kick crash onto the crossbar 10 minutes from the break.
But two minutes into stoppage time in the first half, Neymar broke the deadlock as he steered Mbappe’s low cross out of Lopez’s reach to join Lille‘s Jonathan David at the top of the scoring charts with nine goals.
There was more pressure from PSG early in the second half, and Marseille cracked in the 72nd minute when substitute Gigot was shown a straight red card for a rough tackle on Neymar.
PSG looked to hit OM on the break and on one such counter attack, Messi chipped the ball just over the bar after being played through by Mbappe.
The Argentina forward, back from a brief calf injury layoff, was replaced by Pablo Sarabia 10 minutes from time.
Marseille did not surrender but PSG controlled the pace of the game and threatened again through Sarabia before handing the visitors their second defeat in a row in Ligue 1.
