Troyes vs PSG

Newly-promoted Troyes will take on last season’s Ligue 1 runners-up Paris Saint-Germain in the 2021/22 curtain-raiser.

Troyes finished top of Ligue 2 last term with a comfortable five-point lead on second-placed Clermont, notably finding the net in 89.47% of their league fixtures. After earning Ligue 1 promotion for the fourth time in a decade, Troyes will be looking to improve on their disappointing top-flight starts, having won just one Ligue 1 curtain-raiser in their last nine top-tier campaigns (D3, L5). But after going unbeaten in five of their first six home Ligue 1 meetings with Paris (W2, D3, L1), ‘ESTAC’ have lost their last three such encounters by an aggregate scoreline of 12-0. What’s more, Troyes are riding on the club’s worst-ever losing streak against top-flight opposition, having lost their last seven Ligue 1 matches against PSG, home and away. Five of their last six H2H losses witnessed them fail to get on the scoresheet.

In the meantime, PSG fell one point short of Lille in a nerve-shredding Ligue 1 title race last season, seeing their three-year reign of dominance of French football come to a halt. Desperate to retrieve the league crown immediately, Mauricio Pochettino will be under pressure to deliver in his first full season in charge following an astonishing transfer campaign. Manufacturing action from the get-go, ‘Les Parisiens’ have avoided defeat in eight of their last nine Ligue 1 openers (W5, D3), though just one of their previous four such encounters against newly-promoted sides yielded a triumph (D1, L2). Moreover, each of PSG’s last five Ligue 1 defeats to newly-promoted clubs came away from home. On the bright side, the visitors have racked up seven victories in their last eight Ligue 1 trips (D1), with 85.71% of those wins featuring a full-time margin of 2+ goals.