PARIS (AP) — Strasbourg's push for a Champions League place is peaking at the right time under English coach Liam Rosenior.
The Alsace-based club is unbeaten in nine Ligue 1 games ahead of Saturday's trip to Monaco. A victory for sixth-placed Strasbourg would move it level on points with second-placed Monaco.
The top three teams earn an automatic place in the Champions League while the side finishing fourth enters qualifying. A complication for Strasbourg is being owned by Chelsea, setting up a breach of UEFA rules on multi-club ownership in its competitions.
“I’ve felt for a while that this group has something (special)," Rosenior said this week.
The attack is led by Dutch striker Emanuel Emegha, who has 13 league goals, and Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos, who has nine. The defense has kept six clean sheets in the past nine games — including a run of five straight games.
Strasbourg goalkeeper Đorđe Petrović will be tested at Stade Louis II by a Monaco attack which is also ending the season strong.
Mika Biereth has 12 goals in 12 games for Monaco and is particularly effective at home, where he has three hat tricks. He is combining well with Switzerland striker Breel Embolo and Japan's Takumi Minamino. Attacking midfielder Maghnes Akliouche has eight assists, the equal second-best tally in the league behind Bradley Barcola.
“We know Monaco is a team which likes to play. We’re keeping the same course, we’re not changing anything,” Rosenior said. Strasbourg “has lost only one (league) match in 2025.”
It has been a remarkable first season for 40-year-old Rosenior, who played in the Premier League for Fulham, Reading and Hull as a defender. His father Leroy Rosenior was a bustling striker with Fulham and West Ham in the 1980s.
Rosenior’s coaching career started three years ago with a brief stint at English club Derby, followed by taking charge of Hull. He was among the nominees last season for manager of the year in England's second-tier Championship.
Few observers gave him a chance of doing so well in his first season in charge in France, especially as he had only two weeks to prepare with his players.
“Preseason preparation was short, some players arrived late," Rosenior said. "We never really had all the players together.”
Chelsea's holding company BlueCo bought into Strasbourg in 2023. UEFA has rules aiming to protect competition integrity by preventing two clubs with the same owner from playing in the same competition.
Chelsea is currently sixth in the Premier League, where the top five will enter the Champions League. Chelsea and Strasbourg could both qualify together for the Champions League or second-tier Europa League.
In similar recent scenarios, UEFA required multi-club owners to divest from one club for the entire season, likely through a blind trust, and restrict cooperation between clubs on transfers and knowledge sharing.
When bitter local rivals Saint-Etienne and Lyon meet on Sunday, two Georgia teammates will face each other — in good form.
Saint-Etienne’s Zuriko Davitashvili has scored seven goals and provided seven assists despite being in a struggling team. The fleet-footed Georges Mikautadze has nine goals for Lyon and has set up five.
While Saint-Etienne's defense is poor, with 67 goals conceded, the attack is dangerous.
Davitashvili is well supported by Lucas Stassin and the skillful Irvin Cardona, who scored twice last weekend in a 3-3 draw against Brest with a header and a deft lob.
“We’ll need everyone for this battle until the end,” Cardona said of the relegation fight.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Brazil's Andrey Santos celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal against Tunisia during a FIFA U-20 World Cup round of 16 soccer match at La Plata Stadium in La Plata, Argentina, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello, file)
FILE - Strasbourg's Emanuel Emegha controls the ball during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Strasbourg at the Parc des Princes in Paris, on Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
FILE - Strasbourg players celebrate after Strasbourg's Emanuel Emegha scored his side's third goal during the French League One soccer match between Lyon and Strasbourg at the Groupama stadium in Decines, outside Lyon, France, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, file)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The head of Iran’s judiciary signaled Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The comments from Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei come as activists had warned hangings of those detained could come soon. Already, a bloody security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,571, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Trump repeatedly has warned that the United States may take military action over the killing of peaceful protesters, just months after it bombed Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day war launched by Israel against the Islamic Republic in June.
Meanwhile Wednesday, Iran held a mass funeral of some 100 security force members killed in the demonstrations after authorities earlier said it would be 300. Tens of thousands of mourners attended, holding Iranian flags and photos of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The caskets, covered in Iranian flags, stood stacked at least three high. Red and white roses and framed photographs of people who were killed covered them.
People elsewhere remained fearful in the streets. Plainclothes security forces still milled around some neighborhoods, though anti-riot police and members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's all-volunteer Basij force appeared to have been sent back to their barracks.
“We are very frightened because of these sounds (of gunfire) and protests,” said one mother of two children shopping for fruits and vegetables Wednesday, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “We have heard many are killed and many are injured. Now peace has been restored but schools are closed and I’m scared to send my children to school again.”
Ahmadreza Tavakoli, 36, told The Associated Press he witnessed one demonstration in Tehran and was shocked by the use of firearms by authorities.
“People were out to express themselves and protest, but quickly it turned into a war zone,” Tavakoli said. “The people do not have guns. Only the security forces have guns.”
Mohseni-Ejei made the comment in a video shared by Iranian state television online.
“If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly,” he said. “If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn’t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast.”
His comments stand as a direct challenge to Trump, who warned Iran about executions an interview with CBS aired Tuesday.
“We will take very strong action,” Trump said. “If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.”
“We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen. And you know, if they want to have protests, that’s one thing, when they start killing thousands of people, and now you’re telling me about hanging — we’ll see how that works out for them. It’s not going to work out good.”
One Arab Gulf diplomat told the AP that major Mideast governments had been discouraging the Trump administration from launching a war now with Iran, fearing “unprecedented consequences” for the region that could explode into a “full-blown war.” The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists.
Meanwhile, activists said Wednesday that Starlink was offering free service in Iran. The satellite internet service has been key in getting around an internet shutdown launched by the theocracy on Jan. 8. Iran began allowing people to call out internationally on Tuesday via their mobile phones, but calls from people outside the country into Iran remain blocked.
“We can confirm that the free subscription for Starlink terminals is fully functional,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, a Los Angeles-based activist who has helped get the units into Iran. “We tested it using a newly activated Starlink terminal inside Iran.”
Starlink itself did not immediately acknowledge the decision.
Security service personnel also apparently were searching for Starlink dishes, as people in northern Tehran reported authorities raiding apartment buildings with satellite dishes. While satellite television dishes are illegal, many in the capital have them in homes, and officials broadly had given up on enforcing the law in recent years.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency said 2,403 of the dead were protesters and 147 were government-affiliated. Twelve children were killed, along with nine civilians it said were not taking part in protests. More than 18,100 people have been detained, the group said.
Gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult, and the AP has been unable to independently assess the toll given the communications being disrupted in the country.
Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
FILE - This frame grab from footage circulating on social media shows protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire as they take to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world, in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a ceremony to mark the Shiite holiday of Eid al-Ghadir, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)
