Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored a superb goal as Paris Saint-Germain began the defence of their Champions League crown with a comprehensive 4-0 win over Atalanta at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday. Marquinhos opened the scoring inside three minutes as PSG made a fast start in front of their own fans, with Kvaratskhelia bursting through to blast home a second before the interval. Nuno Mendes added another early in the second half and substitute Goncalo Ramos wrapped up the victory late on. Bradley Barcola also had a penalty saved in the first half as Luis Enrique`s team proved far too strong for their Italian opponents, who had no answer to the threat posed by the European champions. PSG will now hope to build on this and avoid the troubles that befell them last season, when they won just one and lost three of their first five games in the league phase.

"We played really well and deserved the victory, but we have no set objective because our fixtures are the hardest of any team," insisted the coach. They overcame their poor start last season to qualify for the knockout rounds and go on to win the title, but their prospects of retaining the trophy have been called into question with early-season injuries exposing the limits of an overworked squad. Here it was all-action midfielder Joao Neves who had to come off in the second half after going down seemingly complaining of a painful left hamstring. "We will have to wait to see what the doctors say," admitted Luis Enrique. The French club hardly had any off-season break after a last campaign which lasted 65 games and 11 months, and they recently lost star forwards Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue for several weeks to injuries picked up on international duty. Playing at centre-forward here, therefore, was 19-year-old Senny Mayulu, who scored the last goal in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in last season`s final.