PSG continues to dominate in France but Liverpool is looming in Champions League

Paris Saint-Germain has no serious rival in France this season and will soon find out if its crushing domestic dominance can translate into the team thriving on European soccer's biggest stage.

Still unbeaten in the French league after 23 matches, PSG extended its massive lead at the top of the standings to 13 points on Sunday with a 3-2 win at sixth-placed Lyon.

The match came to life after the interval and featured inspired attacking moves from both sides. PSG was the better side and led 2-0 with seven minutes left to play. The only downside for Luis Enrique’s team was its players' inability to keep their lead intact when Lyon really upped the tempo.

Inspired by the in-form Ousmane Dembélé — who scored his 17th league goal at Lyon — PSG has made tremendous progress in recent weeks. Achraf Hakimi scored PSG's other goals.

There appears little doubt that PSG will win a record-extending 13th league title this season. But a far tougher test looms in March against Premier League leader Liverpool when the two teams face off in a mouthwatering last-16 Champions League tie. The first leg is in Paris on March 5.

It’s the next big hurdle on the road that separates PSG from their ultimate goal of winning the Champions League, a task that has proved too difficult so far despite the millions injected by Qatari investors since 2011.

The only French club to win the Champions League, second-placed Marseille, made headlines for the wrong reason this weekend. It lost 3-0 at Auxerre, and its president accused French league referees of corruption.

In Lyon, Hakimi put PSG ahead in the 53rd minute from Bradley Barcola's cross and Dembélé doubled the lead six minutes later with a superb strike in the opposite corner.

Ryan Cherki ensured some suspense when he pulled one back at the end of a fine team move with seven minutes left to play. Hakimi completed his brace soon after to restore PSG's two-goal lead after Gonçalo Ramos delivered a scintillating backheel pass in the buildup, only for Corentin Tolisso to revive the suspense in stoppage time with a header. But that was too little, too late.

Struggling Nantes moved five points clear off the relegation playoff spot with a 3-1 win against Lens.

A week after getting hammered 7-1 at Monaco, Nantes bounced back to secure only its fifth win in 23 league games this season.

The hosts put on a spirited display against a visiting side that lacked an attacking spark and was reduced to 10 men for the last 20 minutes.

French teenager Louis Leroux celebrated his first Ligue 1 start by opening the scoring in the 36th minute with a powerful shot. Moses Simon then made it 2-0 with a penalty kick on the hour-mark following a handball.

Neil El Aynaoui pulled one back from the spot five minutes later but Lens never looked capable of scrambling a comeback, especially after Mbala Nzola was sent off. Meschack Elia Lina secured a Nantes victory in stoppage time from former Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin's assist.

Lens slumped to a third straight loss and remained in eighth place.

According to the league's statistics, Coquelin played his first Ligue 1 game since May 29, 2011, meaning he waited for 13 years and 270 days.

The much-traveled Coquelin joined Nantes last month as a free agent.

It's the second longest gap between two matches for a player in the French topflight since 1947-48 after Samuel Lobé — 14 years, 79 days between January 1986 and April 2000.

Toulouse winger Zakaria Aboukhlal scored a stunning scissor-kick goal in a 4-1 win at Le Havre. The 25-year-old Dutch player put Toulouse in front with his left foot when he connected with a lofted ball from Shavy Babicka in the Le Havre area.

With his back to the goal, close to the penalty spot, Aboukhlal rose and unleashed an acrobatic shot that hit the right post and went into the back of the net. It was Aboukhlal’s seventh league goal this season.

Le Havre remained in the relegation zone, two points above last-placed Montpellier, with Toulouse 10th.

Jonathan Claus and Hicham Boudaoui both scored as Nice moved back to third place with a 2-0 win over Montpellier. Strasbourg and Brest drew 0-0.

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Brest's Mathias Pereira Lage, right, looks on the ball next to PSG's Ousmane Dembele during the Champions League playoff second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Brest at the Parc des Princes in Paris, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

PSG's Ousmane Dembele, center, duels for the ball with Lyon's Corentin Tolisso, left, and Lyon's Clinton Mata during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Lyon's goalkeeper Lucas Perri, right, makes a save in front of PSG's Ousmane Dembele during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Lyon's Sael Kumbedi, left, duels for the ball with PSG's Bradley Barcola during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Lyon's Sael Kumbedi, left, duels for the ball with PSG's Desire Doue during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

PSG's Achraf Hakimi, right, duels for the ball with Lyon's Nicolas Tagliafico during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Lyon's Moussa Niakhate, right, duels for the ball with PSG's Achraf Hakimi during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

PSG's Desire Doue, center, duels for the ball with Lyon's Nemanja Matic, right, and Lyon's Sael Kumbedi during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

PSG's Achraf Hakimi, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring opening goal during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Lyon's Sael Kumbedi, left, duels for the ball with PSG's Bradley Barcola during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

PSG's Achraf Hakimi, front, celebrates with teammates after scoring opening goal during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

PSG's Ousmane Dembele controls the ball during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the Groupama stadium, outside Lyon, France, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Artemis II astronauts fired their engines and blazed toward the moon Thursday night, breaking free of the chains that have trapped humanity in shallow laps around Earth in the decades since Apollo.

The so-called translunar ignition came 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans and a Canadian on course for a lunar fly-around early next week. Their Orion capsule bolted out of orbit around Earth right on cue and chased after the moon to nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am so, so excited to be able to tell you that for the first time since 1972 during Apollo 17, human beings have left Earth orbit,” NASA’s Lori Glaze announced at a news conference.

The engine firing was flawless, she noted.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said he and his crewmates were glued to the capsule's windows as they left Earth in the rearview mirror, taking in the “phenomenal” views. Their faces were pressed so tightly against the windows that they had to wipe them clean.

“Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and it’s your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the moon,” Hansen said.

NASA had the Artemis II crew stick close to home for a day to test their capsule’s life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure.

Now committed to the moon, the Artemis II test flight is the opening act for NASA’s grand plans for a moon base and sustained lunar living.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Hansen will dash past the moon then hang a U-turn and zip straight home without stopping on land. In the process, they will become the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970. They also may become the fastest during their reentry at flight’s end on April 10.

Glover, Koch and Hansen already have made history as the first Black, the first woman and the first non-U.S. citizen to launch to the moon. Apollo’s 24 lunar travelers were all white men.

To set the mood for the day’s main event, Mission Control woke up the crew with John Legend’s “Green Light” featuring Andre 3000 and a medley of NASA teams cheering them. “We are ready to go,” Glover said.

Mission Control gave the final go-ahead minutes before the critical engine firing, telling the astronauts that they were embarking on “humanity’s lunar homecoming arc” to bring them back to Earth. The capsule is relying on the gravity of Earth and the moon — termed a free-return lunar trajectory — to complete the round-trip figure-eight loop. The engine accelerated their capsule to more than 24,000 mph (38,000 kph) to shove them out of Earth's orbit.

“With this burn to the moon, we do not leave Earth. We choose it,” Koch said.

Flight director Judd Frieling said he and his team were all business while on duty but will likely reflect on the momentousness of it all once they go home. “I suspect everybody understands that this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment," he told reporters.

The next major milestone will be Monday’s lunar flyby.

Orion will zoom 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) beyond the moon before turning back, providing unprecedented and illuminated views of the lunar far side, at least for human eyes. The cosmos will even treat the Artemis II astronauts to a total solar eclipse as the moon temporarily blocks the sun from their perspective.

While awaiting their orbital departure earlier Thursday, the astronauts savored the views of Earth from tens of thousands of miles high. Koch told Mission Control that they can make out the entire coastlines of continents and even the South Pole, her old stomping ground.

NASA is counting on the test flight to kickstart the entire Artemis program and lead to a moon landing by two astronauts in 2028.

The so-called lunar loo may need some design tweaks, however.

Orion's toilet malfunctioned as soon as the Artemis crew reached orbit Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Koch through some plumbing tricks and she finally got it going, but not before having to resort to using contingency urine storage bags.

The urine pouches are serving double duty. Mission Control ordered the crew to fill a bunch of the empty bags with water from the capsule’s dispenser on Thursday. A valve issue arose with the dispenser following liftoff, and NASA wanted plenty of drinking water on hand for the crew in case the problem recurred. The astronauts used straws and syringes to fill the pouches with more than 2 gallons (7 liters) worth before pivoting to the moon.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This image released by NASA on Thursday, April 2, 2026, shows NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Earth in the background. (NASA via AP)

This image taken from video provided by NASA shows the Earth, left, from NASA's Orion spacecraft as it fired its engines heading toward the moon Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, a view of the Earth from NASA's Orion spacecraft as it orbits above the planet during the Artemis II test flight, on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, an Artemis program patch floating in the International Space Station's cupola, on March 30, 2026. (Jessica Meir/NASA via AP)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)