Di Maria produced a vintage performance with two goals to help Paris St Germain claim a 3-0 home win over Real Madrid in their Champions League Group A opening game on Wednesday.
In the absence of the formidable trio of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Edinson Cavani, Di Maria provided two first-half goals as PSG suffocated Real throughout and Thomas Meunier added a third in stoppage time.
Zinedine Zidane's Real, who eliminated PSG in the last 16 in 2017-18 and were also missing key players at the Parc des Princes, failed to muster a shot on target and suffered their first defeat of the season.
PSG lead the standings on three points, ahead of Club Brugge and Galatasaray, who played out a goalless draw earlier on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Substitute Hector Herrera scored a 90th-minute equaliser to crown a fine Atletico Madrid comeback and deny Juventus victory in the Champions League.
Former Chelsea winger Juan Cuadrado produced a sumptuous curling finish to put Juventus in front before a header by French World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi made it 2-0.
Stefan Savic sparked Atletico's fightback with a header inside the six-yard area before Herrera struck from a late corner.
Also, Bayern Munich kicked off their Champions League campaign by easing to a 3-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade with goals from Kingsley Coman, Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller.
Manchester City put aside their recent Premier League setback, delivering a comfortable performance in a 3-0 win at Shakhtar Donetsk.
Bayern Leverkusen were stunned at home by Lokomotiv Moscow, and Dinamo Zagreb thumped Atalanta 4-0 in the latter’s first appearance in the competition.
Here’s how the actions unfolded:
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