Paris Saint-Germain v Gazelec Ajaccio: Silva wary of ´unknown quantity´

Gazelec Ajaccio are an unknown quantity to Thiago Silva, but the Paris Saint-Germain captain expects the champions to have too much quality for the Ligue 1 newcomers on Sunday.

PSG started their quest to be crowned French champions for a fourth consecutive season with a 1-0 victory at Lille last Friday despite playing over an hour with 10 men following Adrien Rabiot’s dismissal.

Lucas Moura scored the only goal of the game in the second half to ensure the Parisian giants started their top-flight campaign with a victory for the first time in five years.

It will be a major surprise if Laurent Blanc’s side fail to follow that up by securing another three points despite being without big-money signing Angel di Maria and striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Gazelec are playing in the top flight for the first time in their history and although Silva will not take Thierry Laurey’s side, who held Troyes to a goalless draw on the road last weekend, lightly, the defender is not expecting a slip-up at the Parc des Princes.

He said: “It will be a very tough game, because we don’t know very much about this team. That means that could cause us problems.

“But if we concentrate like we did against Lille, we should get a good result. We need to be totally focused at this stage of the season, because last year, we didn’t make a good start to the campaign.

“This year is different. We have started with an important win over Lille. On Sunday, we will be playing at home, in front of our supporters.

“When we play at the Parc, with our fans behind us, it’s very hard for opposition teams to play against us.”

Di Maria is not yet ready to make his PSG debut, but the Argentina winger is set to be introduced to the home faithful and Ibrahimovic is also building up his fitness after suffering a knee injury.

Midfielder Benjamin Stambouli will be hoping to make his home debut for the champions after coming off the bench in the victory at Lille.

PSG have won their last 10 games in Ligue 1 and it would be an incredible story if Gazelec secure their first win in the top tier of French football at the expense of Blanc’s men.