AP, Paris :
The star was missing but the party went ahead successfully at the Parc des Princes on Saturday as Paris Saint-Germain won its French league season-opener.
Without Neymar on the pitch, Edinson Cavani and Javier Pastore took on the scoring responsibilities to ensure PSG got a winning start by beating promoted Amiens 2-0. It was only PSG’s fourth win in its last 12 season-opening games in Ligue 1.
World-record signing Neymar was ineligible to play because of paperwork issues and PSG coach Unai Emery opted for a 4-3-3 formation with Pastore and Angel Di Maria supporting Cavani.
Just like the fans, Neymar watched from the stands. The French league did not receive his international transfer certificate from the Spanish federation before Friday night’s deadline, despite his 222 million euro ($262 million) move from Barcelona being completed the previous day.
“All I know is that the club did everything to have the player’s transfer ratified,” Emery said. “He prepared for the game with the group, we waited until the very end. I don’t know if Spain did everything, but PSG did all it could,”
Neymar did not play but he gave fans something to cheer about during his official presentation before the game. Neymar was unveiled at a ceremony involving fireworks and did a lap of honor.
The 25-year-old Brazil international is now expected to make his debut on Aug. 13 against Guingamp.
“With Neymar we can get bigger,” said Emery, whose main objectives this season are to win the Champions League and to regain the French league title his players relinquished to Monaco last season.
Hired a few weeks before Neymar this summer, Brazil defender Dani Alves was given his first start, while Alphonse Areola was prefered to Kevin Trapp in goal.
Amiens has the smallest budget of the league with 25 million euros – not much more than a tenth of what PSG paid for Neymar – and it showed. Amiens gave away possession immediately after kickoff with a long ball that went out of bounds.
The visitors were then pegged back into their own half until the break.
“We hoped that some PSG players would have their minds turned to partying because of Neymar, but they were all serious,” Amiens coach Christophe Pelissier said. “We did what we could, but it was really tough offensively.”
