Paris Saint-Germain dropped points for the second successive Ligue 1 game following a 1-1 draw with Reims on Sunday night.
Lionel Messi returned after being rested in the 7-0 win over Pays de Cassel in the cup and joined Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Junior in the attack.
Messi was keen to get the hosts off to an inspired start under three minutes from a flick in behind by Achraf Hakimi, but the World Cup winner volleyed wide.
Reims went very close to going ahead minutes later, but a stunning point-blank save from Gianluigi Donnarumma denied Marshall Munetsi at the far post of the area.
Munetsi made another attempt to goal following the half-hour mark where the Zimbabwean’s overhead kick from a floated ball by Alexis Flips flew wide of the mark.
The league leaders made a substitution ahead of the second half as Italian international Marco Verratti came on for Vitinha across the middle of the park.
An ideal start five minutes to the second half saw PSG go ahead when Messi’s snap shot bounced off Juan Bernat and right at Neymar to go past Yehvann Diouf and fire in the roof of the net.
Drama followed eight minutes later as Reims won a penalty following a foul by Marquinhos on Folarin Balogun but after a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review, it was overturned.
Verratti, though, was dismissed after he was deemed to have fouled Junya Ito in the build-up and the referee saw it fit to hand him his marching orders after reviewing.
Reims still struggled to contain the host later on and should’ve been two goals down when Sergio Ramos’ header from a corner hit the post before having two efforts on the follow-up cleared off the line.
The host again got chances to wrap up the clash where Mbappe’s rasping shot from Neymar’s pass forced Diouf to parry only for Messi to drill the follow-up wide of target.
Reims enjoyed the late momentum and levelled in the dying seconds after Balogun ran in space and tucked in from a ball in behind to see the spoils shared.
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