PSG captain Marquinhos refuse to blame defeat on Messi and Neymar absences
Paris Saint-Germain suffered its first defeat of the season in Ligue 1 against second-place Lens. They lost 3-1 at Stade Bollaert-Delelis on Sunday.
Christophe Galtier's side is at top of the table with 44 points after 17 matches. Lens is in second place with 40 points.
was without Neymar and Lionel Messi in this match.
Neymarwas banned after a red card against Strasbourg and Messi has not returned to training after the World Cup.
"They are great players who make the difference,"
Marquinhos told Amazon Prime Video.
"But we have already won without them.
"We have to find the cohesion of our team again. I think Lens were more efficient, especially in the first half. They won the duels which made the difference.
"We had opportunities to come back, to score, but we weren't able to be as efficient as they were.”
This was PSG’s first defeat in Ligue 1 after 25 matches. Their last defeat was against Monaco in March 2022.
Galtier also criticised his team's performance and admitted that Lens deserved to win the match.
"Lens deserve this victory,"
Galtier said.
"I had a hard time recognising my team. We lacked cohesion, we collapsed as the match progressed.
"We gave a lot of space away, we made a lot of technical errors. There was a lot of surprising wastefulness from my boys. They don't give me that habit usually."
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