An injury to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a post-match incident that left Thiago Motta with a fractured nose overshadowed Paris Saint-Germain’s 2-0 victory against SC Bastia at the Parc des Princes on Saturday.
Ibrahimovic appeared to strain a muscle in his side in innocuous fashion early on, and lasted barely 15 minutes before making way for Ezequiel Lavezzi.
In his absence, Lucas opened the scoring in the 26th minute and Cavani doubled PSG’s advantage just before the hour mark to score his first of the campaign and give PSG their first victory in Ligue 1 after last weekend’s 2-2 draw at Reims.
Bastia had never beaten PSG away from home in the top flight but they were optimistic of springing a surprise thanks to the influence of their new coach Claude Makelele, the former Paris captain who gave up his role as assistant coach at the Parc des Princes to take over in Corsica this summer.
Makelele’s men had recovered from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 at home to Marseille last weekend, but they rarely looked like doing anything similar on this occasion as PSG’s expensive summer signing David Luiz was afforded a gentle stroll in the late afternoon sunshine for his Ligue 1 debut.