Lionel Messi: PSG star nearly produced insane assist for Sergio Ramos v Marseille | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain have been eliminated from the 2022/23 Coupe de France.

The Ligue 1 champions travelled to bitter rivals Marseille in the Round of 16 and were on the receiving end of a 2-1 defeat.

January signing Ruslan Malinovskyi scored the winner in the second half - and it was an absolute stunner from the Ukraine international.

Former Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez had given Marseille a 1-0 lead in the first half, before Sergio Ramos equalised with a header.

But PSG couldn’t respond for a second time after Malinovskyi’s thunderbolt, despite having both Lionel Messi and Neymar on the pitch.

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In truth, the South American superstars were nowhere close to their best in the latest instalment of the iconic ‘Le Classique’ fixture.

Messi was virtually anonymous throughout, a polar opposite of the possessed footballer we saw at the 2022 World Cup out in Qatar.

However, while the Argentine dropped something of a ‘disasterclass’ - by his own lofty standards - he was still inches away from a moment of pure footballing magic that would have saved PSG.

In the 93rd minute of play, when Christophe Galtier's were desperately chasing an equaliser, Messi nearly produced his finest assist for the club so far.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner spotted Ramos in a bit of space on the edge of the box and proceeded to play an inch-perfect pass from near the halfway line.

Sadly, Messi’s former nemesis couldn’t plant his headed effort either side of Marseille goalkeeper, Pau Lopez…

That is a special, special pass. Even when Messi is out of sorts on the pitch, he’s still capable of sublime moments that us mere mortals can barely comprehend.

Ironically, the nearly-assist for Ramos came just a few minutes before a snippet of action which has resulted in Messi being heavily criticised.

In the final minute of stoppage-time, .

They didn’t really look bothered about finding an equaliser.

At the end of the most casual of moves, Messi’s clipped ball into the penalty area was easily gathered by Lopez.

Per L'Equipe, Messi picked up an injury in the match against Marseille and is now a doubt for PSG's Champions League match against Bayern Munich.