On Saturday, the French football season will open - and like in a number of previous seasons, it will happen outside France. Trophee des Champions, as the Supercup is officially called, will see Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco facing each other in China's Shenzhen.

Since 2009, the French curtain-raiser has been hosted only by foreign cities - from Montreal to Libreville, from New York to Beijing. Now the time has come for Shenchen, which will also host the match in the next year.

Technically, Trophee des Champions should be contested between the Ligue 1 title holders and the national cup winners. But both titles, as well as Coupe de la League, were claimed by PSG, so in the Supercup they will meet Monaco, who were runners-up in the league.

Actually it is a rematch of Trophee des Champions 2017, when PSG beat Monaco 2:1 in Morocco's Tanger. It was the fifth straight Supercup win for the Paris club, and if now they defeat Monaco again, they will draw level with the record of Lyon, who won six consecutive Trophees des Champions between 2002 and 2007. Overall, Lyon have won the trophy eight times, and PSG seven, so the Parisian can catch up here as well. 

Paris Saint-Germain

Obviously PSG are seen as favourites in the upcoming duel. For Thomas Tuchel, it will be the first competitive match as Parisians' head coach, and obviously he would like to win a title with his new team. However, the German will not have a full squad at his disposal. The trio of newly-crowned world champions - Alphonse Areola, Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappe - are still recovering after the World Cup, as well as Belgium's Thomas Meunier. And Ligue 1 last season's top scorer Edinson Cavani will miss the match in China through injury which he got in Russia.

At the same time, the new signing Gianluigi Buffon is fit, so probably the 40-year-old Italian will play his first competitive game for PSG. Kevin Trapp should be his substitute, and Areola, who was the first-choice goalkeeper last season, is going to face a much tougher competition once he comes back from vacations. 

Neymar is also available for the match - following the World Cup, the Brazilian had a good rest in his home country, but returned to Paris in time. Despite numerous talks of him leaving France and heading to Real Madrid or elsewhere, recent reports suggest that the most expensive footballer in history is committed to stay at PSG. 

Monaco

Monaco have won Trophee des Champions four times, most recently in 2000. Their latest champion title was claimed much later - in 2017. This year, it will be extremely hard for Leonardo Jardim's team to fight with PSG in the long distance of Ligue 1. However, the Monegasques certainly have a chance to beat their rivals in a single match, as anything may happen during 90 minutes, let alone in a penalty shootout.

While PSG mostly buy expensive stars, Monaco have to sell their key players. This summer, Thomas Lemar has already left for Atletico Madrid, while Fabinho moved to Liverpool. A few other players including Radamel Falcao and Djibril Sidibe were also rumoured to leave, but for now they stay at Monaco. On the other hand, the club have signed some promising players such as Ronael Pierre-Gabriel and Samuel Grandsir, and they bought CSKA midfielder Alexandre Golovin, who did well for Russia at the World Cup on home soil. However, Golovin, just as Sidibe, Falcao and the Croatian world vice-champion Daniel Subasic, are still taking a rest after the World Cup and will not be available in Shenzhen. 

Probable line-ups

PSG: Buffon - Marquinhos, Lassana Diarra, Thiago Silva - Georgen, Lo Celso, Verratti, Rabiot, Kurzawa - Di Maria, Neymar

Monaco: Benaglio - Pierre-Gabriel, Glik, Jemerson, Serrano - Tielemans, Pele - Rony Lopes, Sofiane Diop, Keita Balde - Jovetic