Blanc thrilled with 10-man victory

Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc was delighted with his team’s 1-0 victory over Lille, after having a player sent off in Friday’s Ligue 1 opener.

PSG looked up against it following a red card to Adrien Rabiot in the 28th minute, but the reigning champions were not to be denied thanks to Lucas Moura.

Moura’s well-worked goal 12 minutes into the second half saw PSG secure a club-record 10th consecutive league win.

It also marked PSG’s first opening day win since 2010 and Blanc was pleased with a number of different aspects of the performance.

“Collectively we are getting better, playing more compact and this is allowing us to retrieve the ball quickly,” he said. “There are lots of positive things.

“It’s good to be first [in the league] at the end of the season, but being first at the start is good too.

“We didn’t pick up any injuries this evening, so it was a great evening overall.”

Blanc also refused to criticise Rabiot, who picked up two yellows in the space of five minutes to leave his side facing the prospect of playing more than an hour with 10 men.

“It is a fact of the game,” he said. “The first card seemed harsh because he took the ball.

“The second was a youthful error and was very detrimental to the team, but it may have helped to galvanise us.

“Obviously I prefer to play 11 against 11, but at ten against eleven we didn’t panic, we stayed compact and we defended well.”

The PSG boss went on to express his delight at the arrival of Argentina international Angel di Maria, who watched his new team-mates from the stands at Stade Pierre-Mauroy.

“I am very happy,” he said. “I’d like to thank the president. 

“We absolutely wanted to sign Angel, but it was very complicated and we had to be patient.
 
“He wanted to join us and I am glad to see that the club can recruit a player of this quality.”

Di Maria could make his PSG debut in next Sunday’s home clash with Ajaccio.