By Samindra Kunti
August 7 – Today Paris Saint Germain kick off Ligue 1 with an away game to Lille. The question is not if the Parisians will dominate domestic French football, but how far they can progress in the UEFA Champions League?
The club, chaired by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, had an impressive first-ever domestic clean sweep last season to stamp their hegemony on French football, but failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals of UEFA’s flagship tournament.
FC Barcelona proved to be too strong after PSG beat Jose Mourinho and Chelsea, in a clash of Europe’s two top nouveau rich clubs, in a nail-bitting second round tie. This season the Champions League will again be the benchmark for the success of the Qatari-owned club.
Angel Di Maria has been Paris’s high-profile signing in a summer in which PSG won the International Champions Cup in the US and defeated Olympique Lyon in the French Supercup.
Laurent Blanc’s squad exhibited a good pre-season, but traditionally play poorly on the opening day of the season. PSG last won their season-opener, against AS Saint-Etienne, in the 2010/11 season.
Lille have a new coach with Herve Renard. The two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner has an excellent international record, but has yet to prove himself at club level. PSG will be wary of Lille’s revamped XI. Zlatan Ibhrahimovic is out with an injury. Thiago Silva, widely regarded as Europe’s best central defender, will mastermind the rearguard.
Yet challenges in Ligue 1 seem relative for Zlatan and company. Olympique Lyon aim to quality for the Champions League again, while ambitious Marseille may fall to the whims of Marcelo Bielsa. It is expected that the gulf between the capital club and the rest of Ligue 1 will only deepen this season.
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