Laurent Blanc thrilled with Paris Saint-Germain opener

Laurent Blanc has hailed his troops after 10-man Paris Saint-Germain beat Lille 1-0 on Friday to kick off the defence of their Ligue 1 crown with a victory at Stade Pierre-Mauroy.

Lucas Moura netted the only goal of the game on 57 minutes as Les Parisiens - who won a domestic treble last season - picked up where they left off.

However, Blanc's men had to do it the hard way after Adrien Rabiot received two yellow cards in the space of five minutes to leave the visitors with 10 men for over an hour.

"Collectively we are getting better, playing more compact and this is allowing us to retrieve the ball quickly," he told reporters. "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."

Angel di Maria was in attendance to watch his new teammates after completing a £44m move to PSG from Manchester United on Thursday.