Marseille win came at a cost – Blanc

Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc acknowledged Sunday’s 3-2 win at Marseille came at a significant cost.

The French champions took a significant step towards retaining their Ligue 1 title with a come-from-behind victory at Stade Velodrome.

PSG started the match just two points ahead of third-placed Marseille – and two adrift of Lyon.

But they moved back to the summit with an excellent win that came despite Andre-Pierre Gignac’s first-half double for the hosts.

Blaise Matuidi scored for PSG in the first half, but they went in 2-1 down at the break, only for Marquinhos to quickly level before Jeremy Morel’s own goal settled a thrilling Le Classique.

Both David Luiz and Thiago Motta limped off with hamstring injuries for Blanc’s men, though, dampening his enthusiasm ahead of UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona later this month.

“We’ll savour the victory but we paid an expensive price because we have lost two players,” Blanc said.

“That is a problem but we are very happy to have won here at Marseille.

“To have won is a very, very good job done.”

Matuidi was simply outstanding for PSG, capping his all-action display with an excellent first-half goal.

And Blanc was full of praise for the midfielder – who he hopes will add more goals to his game.

“[Blaise] Matuidi was amazing with his physical game and he worked hard this week to try and score a goal because we were winding him up a bit,” he added.

“He hasn’t had much success in front of goal.”