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PARIS. — Neymar was one of five players sent off after an injury-time brawl as Marseille beat Paris St-Germain 1-0 in a French Ligue 1 football match on Sunday.

The clash saw an incredible 12 yellow cards shown by referee Jerome Brisard inside normal time as tensions flared on the pitch – and the shocking melee that was sparked into life deep inside stoppage time saw both teams punished with dismissals.

As he left the pitch, PSG’s Brazil forward Neymar told the fourth official he had heard a racist comment.

Television footage and a pitchside microphone appear to have caught Neymar pointing at the centre back in question and shouting: “Racism, no?”

The 28-year-old doubled down on his allegation on social media shortly after the game, claiming that Gonzalez had labelled him a “monkey motherf*****”.

Neymar has admitted that he regrets not punching Alvaro Gonzalez in the face after alleging the Marseille defender racially abused him.

As he left the pitch, the 28-year-old told a fourth official that the Spaniard had racially abused him and after the match he took to Twitter to clear up the situation.

He tweeted: “The only regret I have is for not punching the face of this a******.”

Florian Thauvin scored the only goal as PSG lost their opening two league games for the first time since 1984-85.

Home substitutes Leandro Paredes and Layvin Kurzawa, and Marseille’s Jordan Amavi and Dario Benedetto, were dismissed along with Neymar.

The referee watched a video assistant referee (VAR) replay of a punch by Neymar before showing the 28-year-old a straight red card.

After the match, Neymar posted on social media to say that his “only regret” was not hitting Marseille’s Spanish defender Alvaro Gonzalez in the face, having struck him on the back of the head.

In response, Gonzalez denied claims of any wrongdoing, posting on social media: “There is no place for racism.”

In the post-match news conference Marseille manager Andre Villas-Boas said: “There is no place for racism in football but I don’t think that was the case.

“We’ll have to look at it.”

The game, which was watched by a crowd of about 5 000 fans at the Parc des Princes, was fractious even before that late brawl. There were 17 cards shown, a record for a Ligue 1 game in the 21st Century.

The injury-time drama started when Marseille’s Benedetto nudged Paredes in the back, with the PSG midfielder then punching him to the ground before appearing to headbutt Alvaro.

A melee broke out, with Kurzawa and Amavi punching and kicking each other.

Benedetto and Paredes were shown second yellow cards, with Kurzawa and Amavi given straight reds. — BBC Sport.