´It´s a pain in the a**´ – Pavard laments late goal as Marseille miss chance to leapfrog PSG

Benjamin Pavard described conceding a late equaliser in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Toulouse as a “pain in the a**”, after Marseille missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side had a golden opportunity to go to the top of the table after Paris Saint-Germain suffered a 1-0 defeat to Monaco earlier on Saturday.

Marseille fell behind to Emersonn’s strike in the 14th minute, but two goals in eight second-half minutes from Igor Paixao and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg put them in the ascendancy.

They could not hold on, though, as Toulouse substitute Santiago Hidalgo scored two minutes into stoppage time to keep the hosts a point behind PSG at the summit.

Marseille have not lost any of the last four Ligue 1 matches when conceding the first goal (W2 D2), while their 24 points gained after falling behind are more than any other team in the division since De Zerbi’s appointment at the start of 2024-25.

But Pavard could not look past the late goal, with Marseille having now conceded four of their 14 goals against in Ligue 1 this season in the 90th minute or later.

Only Lorient (five) have shipped more such goals.

Pavard told Ligue 1+: “We’re very disappointed. Conceding a goal from a throw-in isn’t normal. We didn’t have a good first half, but we reacted well.

“It’s a pain in the ***. We had to win tonight. That goal at the end… we can’t concede silly goals. We can’t drop silly points like tonight.

“We have to focus on ourselves and win these kinds of matches. We deserved to win, and unfortunately, we conceded that goal at the end. We’re very disappointed and angry.”

Marseille have now won just one of their last three home games (D1) in Ligue 1 after winning each of their previous eight. They are back on the road on Friday, against Lille.