Saturday, August 7, 2021 at 10:54 PM• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 22:58

Paris Saint-Germain started the new season in Ligue 1 on Saturday with a difficult victory. Six days after the defeat to Lille OSC (1-0) in the French Super Cup, the team of coach Mauricio Pochettino was 1-2 too strong for PhD student Troyes. Georginio Wijnaldum made his league debut for PSG, where many players were still missing due to injuries or their participation in the European Championship or the Copa América.

In the opening phase of an entertaining first half, PSG, where Neymar and Sergio Ramos, among others, were missing due to injuries, made a hesitant impression, but Pochettino’s team put things in order and went into halftime with a lead. After nine minutes of play, the Parisians were already behind when Oualid El Hajjam headed the ball hard behind Keylor Navas from a corner from Dylan Chambost: 1-0. PSG initially struggled to create danger, but in the end two good minutes of les Parisiens enough to turn things around at the Stade de l’Aube.

???????? ?? Achraf Hakimi immediately shows his best side in Ligue 1 and it is level again!#ZiggoSport #ESTACPSG pic.twitter.com/hiLnAYmCoc

— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) August 7, 2021

PSG leveled the score against last season’s Ligue 2 champions after nineteen minutes: after a nice pass by Ander Herrera over the defense, Achraf Hakimi was too strong for Youssouf Koné and he worked the ball over goalkeeper Gauthier Gallon: 1-1 . Two minutes later it was hit again when Kylian Mbappé kept the overview after a good individual action and enabled Mauro Icardi to work the ball into the goal: 1-2.

Icardi’s goal was also the winning goal in the end, even though it was constantly one-way traffic towards Gallon’s goal after the break. Troyes not only played with a five-man defense, but also with ten men behind the ball. The spaces for Mbappe in particular were therefore small and PSG could not close the game even from standard situations. Pochettino’s team will play a home game against RC Strasbourg in exactly one week.