Paris Saint-Germain’s mediocre run in Ligue 1 continued as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Stade de Reims in the final period after being reduced to 10 men on Sunday.
Neymar scored early in the second half before Marco Verratti was shown a straight red card after coming on as a substitute, equalizing with Folarin Balogun six minutes into stoppage time.
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PSG, who again lacked creativity, missed an opportunity to extend their Ligue 1 lead to five points after RC Lens chased down the pack. Marseille and Monaco also got just one point on Saturday.
The capital side, who had lost two of their previous three games, have 48 points from 20 games with Lens on 45 and Marseille on 43 in an open title race.
Reims are in 11th place with 26 points after a 12-game unbeaten run in Ligue 1.
PSG midfielder Danilo Pereira said: “I have no words to describe this match. We have to change our mind.” “We have to be able to suffer together. If we can’t do that, it will be difficult for us.”
PSG started this year for the first time with Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar, but stopped in the first half, which ended with one shot, while Reims, who played a complex defense, through Marshall Munetsi, Alexis Flips and Balogun threatened.
This prompted coach Christophe Galtier to replace Vitinha with Verratti in midfield and the Italy international made an immediate impact as PSG finally applied some pressure.
In the 51st minute, Messi’s shot was deflected into the path of Neymar, who turned the ball past Yehvann Diouf.
However, Verratti’s contribution stopped after 14 minutes as he picked up a red card for a hard tackle on Junya Ito following a VAR review.
But PSG continued as Sergio Ramos went close with a double header and Achraf Hakimi had the goal disallowed for offside.
As it looked like three points would be up for grabs for the home side, Balogun ran past Ramos and past Gianluigi Donnarumma to slot the ball into an empty net for a superb equaliser, his 11th league goal of the season.
Earlier, Lyon won 2-0 at AC Ajaccio for their first win in their last four league games thanks to goals from Johann Lepenant and Alexandre Lacazette.
Heat broke out after the final pitch when a fight broke out between the workers on both sides.
Lyon is in ninth place with 28 points.
