PARIS: Brazilian superstar Neymar and his Paris-Saint Germain team-mates will raise the curtain on the 2018-19 Ligue 1 season as they ended the last, facing Caen.
The champions' last match was on May 18 away to Caen where a 0-0 draw helped the hosts retain their Ligue 1 status.
And the minnows' reward is a trip to the Parc des Princes in Paris on Friday, August 10.
On the final day of last season, PSG were without their world-record signing Neymar, who had missed the closing months of the season injured.
And although still on PSG's books, rumours are rife that the 26-year-old superstar, who made a scoring return for Brazil in a World Cup warm up game last Sunday, might have headed off for pastures new, with Real Madrid a possible destination.
For PSG, one challenge of playing the first game on Friday night might be recovering from a trip to China. They play last season's runners up, Monaco, in the traditional French curtain raiser, the Champions Trophy, in Shenzen on Saturday, August 4.
That game is less than three weeks after the end of the World Cup in Russia. Only Manchester City and Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona have more squad members heading to Russia than PSG's 12.
Monaco, champions in 2017, open their season on Saturday, August 11, away to Nantes.
The first heavyweight clash of the season will take place on Sunday, September 2, when Monaco travel to Marseille, who finished fouth last season to secure a Champions League berth.
The Olympian clash between Lyon and Marseille, whose last encounter in March ended in a brawl between players and was followed by a war of words between the clubs' presidents, meet in Lyon on Friday, September 22.
PSG entertain Lyon, third last season, on the weekend of October 6, travel to Marseille for the French "clasico" on the weekend of October 27 and return to the Mediterranean coast two weeks later to take on Monaco again.
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