After seeing his Paris Saint-Germain side comfortably beat Real Madrid 3-0 in their Champions League opener, coach Thomas Tuchel has declared his returning stars will have to earn thier place in his team.
Both Kylian Mbappe and Neymar were seen watching the game at the Parc de Princes from the stands on Wednesday with the Frenchman out injured and the Brazilian serving the first of his two-game suspension.
With Edinson Cavani also out injured, Tuchel's side impressed without their big-name players as Angel Di Maria haunted his former side with a brace before Thomas Meunier added a third in injury-time.
It was a near perfect performance from the reigning Ligue 1 champions with their coach adamant his stars will have to match the performance of those that filled their void admirably against Real.
"I'm very happy with the whole team because it was really difficult, we had a lot of chances, but there were also some stages for Real where we suffered," Tuchel told RMC Sport.
"But we stayed structured, always blocked, tight, aggressive and compact, really, it was a complete performance.
"Mbappe and Neymar saw the match, and they have to do what the others did on their return.
"That's good, we are happy to have such a team, which was not always the case. We can make a good team match without our stars, and it's absolutely necessary. I have to make tough decisions, but it's good, the competition must be like that in a club like PSG."
After personally sealing PSG's win late in the game after a neat one-two with Juan Bernat, Meunier stressed how impressed he was with how his side performed as a team.
"My goal was the icing on the cake. I prefer to look at the collective benefit," Meunier said.
"There was a very good team and despite the absence of our three stars, we played as a team. We were very good, like a real block, and offensively we had a lot of opportunities and not against any team, it was Real, even if they are still heating up.
"We never made it easy and they had very few opportunities."