Paris Saint Germain will begin the defence of their Ligue 1 crown on Sunday evening as they take on minnows Nimes at the Parc de Princes.

Thomas Tuchel’s men lifted their second consecutive French league title last season as they amassed an eye-watering 91 points and finished 16 points clear of nearest challengers Lille. They of course then will be aiming to follow that success up with another league title and can be backed at odds as narrow as 1/9 with William Hill to do just that once again. Meanwhile, Nimes will be hoping to stave off second season syndrome and build on a fantastic ninth-placed finish from last season.

However, they are not expected to start their second season back in Ligue 1 in the best way with the hosts predicted to be victors. The Parisiens can be backed at odds of 1/9 to win the game with Coral, whilst a draw is at 17/2. Nimes to claim a shock win at the Parc de Princes sits at a price of 28/1.

The clues probably come from the previous two matches between the two sides last season. They at first met in September with PSG running out 4-2 winners away from home with goals from Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Angel Di Maria and Edinson Cavani. They then followed that up with another impressive 3-0 victory later on in the season as Christopher Nkunku opened the scoring and Mbappe scored a brace.

The leading scorer in Ligue 1 last campaign, the French superstar is one of the favourites to open the scoring this time around and can be backed at odds of 7/4 with Betfred. Renaud Ripart is backed to open the scoring from the perspective of Bernard Blaquart’s men and sits at a price of 18/1 to score the first goal of the game.

One man that will not be taking to the field however is Brazilian star Neymar. The forward has returned to training from an ankle injury but is not expected to make an appearance in this game. Centre-half Presnel Kimpembe has also returned to action but he could well be out too. Summer signing from Manchester United, Ander Herrera, is not available to make his PSG debut due to being ruled out until at least September with a calf injury.

Nimes also have problems of their own in relation to injuries. Sidy Sarr is out with an ankle injury and joins Clement Depres on the sidelines, who is also suffering with a ruptured ACL.