Paris Saint Germain vs Ajaccio GFCO preview - Gazelec put tin hats on for PSG

Posted Saturday, August 15, 2015 by PA

David and Goliath will clash at the Parc des Princes on Sunday in what the bookmakers are predicting will be the most one-sided match in Ligue 1 this season.

Just two seasons ago, Gazelec Ajaccio were competing in the third tier of French football in front of crowds of hundreds of people.

But after gaining back to back promotions, the Corsican side are in Ligue 1 and on Sunday they face the daunting task of travelling to the home of the French champions.

A vast array of statistics can be cited to demonstrate the gap between the two clubs.

PSG can boast home crowds of just under 50,000 while Gazelec's Stade Ange-Casanova is a 10th of the size - and capacity has doubled since promotion.

PSG have splashed B#44.3million on the summer signing of Angel di Maria, but Gazelec have had to scratch around for cheap signings from Turkey, Qatar, Germany and Italy.

Budget, of course, is the biggest difference between the two clubs.

Compared to PSG's B£348million, Gazelec only have B#9.8million to spend, which is nearly half of fellow promoted side Troyes.

Gazelec's budget for the season may be less than Zlatan Ibrahimovic's annual salary, but PSG defender Thiago Silva is wary of being caught out by the newcomers, who are priced at 33-1 for the win.

"It will be a very tough game, because we don't know very much about this team. That means they could cause us problems. But if we concentrate like we did against Lille, we should get a good result," said the Brazilian, who captained PSG to a 1-0 win over Lille last weekend.

"We need to be totally focused at this stage of the season, because last year, we didn't make a good start to the campaign.

"This year is different. We have started with an important win over Lille.

"On Sunday, we will be playing at home, in front of our supporters. When we play at the Parc, with our fans behind us, it's very hard for opposition teams to play against us."

Gazelec will not go down without a fight this year - those who witnessed their pre-season friendly against Cagliari get called off after 81 minutes because of a brawl can attest to that.

They showed plenty of promise on their Ligue 1 debut last weekend too, drawing 0-0 at Troyes. Had Mohamed Larbi not missed a penalty, Thierry Laurey's team would have come away with three historic points instead.

Laurey is not scared about his team taking a hiding against a team containing the likes of Silva, Edinson Cavani and Javier Pastore.

"We have absolutely nothing to lose. We want above all to have fun," the Gazelec coach said.

"Frankly, I do not care about the result. We will try to give everything on the pitch, but we know that it will be very difficult."