Paris Saint-Germain kick off Ligue 1 title defence at Lille

Paris: French champions Paris Saint Germain raise the curtain on their title defence at Lille in a televised Friday evening game in early August, the French Ligue 1 organisers said on Thursday.

Resurgent runner`s-up Lyon meanwhile travel to southern giants Marseille on September 20 in the first of Ligue 1`s big clashes at the Velodrome stadium on matchday 6.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his PSG teammates await Marseille for the first of their much awaited so-called `Classico` games on October 4 with the return clash on February 7.

The closest thing France has to a real derby is the bitter regional clash between Lyon and Saint-Etienne on November 8 with the opposite date scheduled for Janary 16.