PARIS: Paris St Germain regained the Ligue 1 lead after the French champions twice came back from a goal down to win 3-2 away to fierce rivals Olympique de Marseille in a frenzied ‘Le Classique’ at the Stade Velodrome on Sunday.

Marseille held a 2-1 lead at the interval thanks to top-scorer Andre-Pierre Gignac’s brace either side of a Blaise Matuidi beauty, but PSG profited from poor defending to score twice in quick succession at the start of the second half.

Brazilian defender Marquinhos equalised in the 49th minute and Marseille defender Jeremy Morel scored an own goal in the 51st to swing the match decisively in the capital club’s favour as PSG claimed a seventh consecutive victory against Marseille in all competitions.

Laurent Blanc’s PSG moved to 62 points with seven games left and lead Olympique Lyon, who beat En Avant Guingamp 3-1 away on Saturday, by one point with Marseille in third on 57.

However, the win came at a high price as David Luiz and Thiago Motta went off injured with PSG facing a hectic schedule chasing trophies on four fronts.

Luiz limped off after appearing to pull a hamstring and Motta trudged off right before the end with a similar-looking injury. PSG recently lost central midfielder Yohan Cabaye to a muscle injury, while Brazil winger Lucas is still trying to regain full fitness.

“If I have to take something away from the game it’s the victory, but we paid dearly with two players injured,” Blanc said. “In the race for the title, nothing is decided but it was an important win.”

PSG have a French Cup semi-final against St Etienne on Wednesday, followed by the League Cup final against Bastia on Saturday and the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal against Barcelona four days later.

“We lost two players and it’s worrying ahead of the important games that await us,” said Matuidi. “It’s up to us to fight to the end and we’ll do everything to win a maximum of trophies.”

Defeat left Marcelo Bielsa’s Marseille — who had Andre Ayew red-carded after the final whistle — hanging onto the third and final Champions League qualifying berth, with fourth-placed Monaco only three points behind with a game in hand.

“It’s a fair result. It was a match of opposing styles and PSG came out on top,” Marseille coach Marcelo Bielsa said. “It was nothing to do with luck or anything else, that’s why we have no excuses.”

There was an intimidating environment for PSG, whose team bus was struck by missiles — including a golf ball that smashed a window — en route to the ground.

Marseille, who had lost only one of their last eight league games, were on the back foot early on but they went ahead on the half hour when Gignac sent a powerful header past Salvatore Sirigu from Dimitri Payet’s cross.

PSG’s chances took a further blow when Luiz limped off in the 34th minute but Matuidi silenced the Velodrome a minute later with a magnificent curling strike into the far top corner of the net on his weaker right foot.

However, Marseille reclaimed the lead two minutes before the interval. Javier Pastore lost possession in the midfield and Alaixys Romao set up Gignac, who slotted the ball past Sirigu with a confident finish for his 18th goal of the season.

The home support greeted the half-time whistle as though they had won the game but Marseille got off to a terrible start in the second half and paid dearly for it.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s free kick was deflected by goalkeeper Steve Mandanda into the path of Marquinhos, who smashed the ball into the roof of the net before Morel turned a Pastore ball from the left into his own net under pressure from Ibrahimovic.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play