NEYMAR has marked his first appearance for Paris Saint-Germain with a goal and an assist.
Paris Saint-Germain’s world record transfer Neymar had a goal and an assist as the capital club dismissed En Avant de Guingamp 3-0 in the Brazilian’s PSG debut on Sunday.
EA Guingamp 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain
THE MATCH
Guingamp’s 18,250-capacity Stade de Roudourou was packed to the rafters for Neymar’s first competitive match in PSG colours, and the former Barcelona man – now the world’s most expensive player at €222 million – wasted little time in exerting his influence on the game, setting up Edinson Cavani for a shot that was saved by Karl-Johan Johnsson (16′) before seeing an effort of his own sail over the bar (20′). Neymar then span a ball in for Marquinhos whose header came back off the post (35′). Cavani – Paris’ chief headline-grabber last season with his league-high 35 goals – came close to snatching his second of the new campaign towards the end of the half, but Johnsson kept his free-kick out (37′) and the teams went into the interval with the scores all square.Paris pressure tells
For all of Paris’ attacking talents, the opening goal was gifted to the visitors soon after the restart when Jordan Ikoko’s back-pass to Johnsson went awry and ended up in the back of the home goal (52′). The six-time French champions doubled their advantage in emphatic fashion, though, with Neymar providing a sublime through-ball for Cavani, who thumped home his 90th goal in just 135 French top-flight games (62′). Neymar teed up Angel Di Maria for a similar chance soon after, but the Argentina winger was stopped by Johnsson from point-blank range (78′). Cavani returned the favour for Neymar late on, selflessly teeing up the former Barca man to poke home the first of what looks likely to be many goals for Paris (82′).
THE PLAYER: Neymar
With Di Maria, Julian Draxler, Lucas Moura and Javier Pastore in their squad, PSG already have many options out wide in the final third, but Neymar brings an extra level of attacking verve. A 25-year-old at the peak of his powers, Neymar poked and probed, completing a team-high 103 passes, one of which he expertly threaded though the eye of a needle to assist Cavani just past the hour, before getting his own name on the teamsheet late on.THE STAT: 12
PSG have now won 12 of their last 13 matches in Ligue 1 Conforama. Unai Emery’s men were beaten 3-1 by OGC Nice in April, but you have to go all the way back to December 2016 for their previous league defeat, which came at the hands of Guingamp in Week 18 with Yannis Salibur and Nill De Pauw – now of Zulte Waregem – drowning out Cavani’s strike in an upset 2-1 win for the Bretons.
