PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain striker Ousmane Dembélé has recovered from a slight hamstring problem and will be in the squad taking on Arsenal in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal on Wednesday.
Coach Luis Enrique said Dembélé, who scored the winner in PSG's 1-0 win in London last week, has been training with his teammates for two days.
Click to Gallery
Arsenal's Declan Rice, left, with Arsenal's Martin Odegaard, right, during a training session in London, England, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, ahead of the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly arrives during a training session in London, England, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, ahead of the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta looks on during a training session in London, England, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, ahead of the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique applauds the fans at the end of the Champions League semifinal first leg soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at Arsenal Stadium in London, England, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Paris Saint Germain's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Champions League semifinal first leg soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at Emirates Stadium in London, England, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
"I have him at my disposal tomorrow,” Enrique said on Tuesday.
Dembélé was injured during the first leg and rested over the weekend when PSG lost to Strasbourg 2-1 in Ligue 1. Enrique heavily rotated his squad with the match against the Gunners in mind.
Dembélé’s goal against Arsenal was his eighth in nine Champions League appearances since the start of the year.
PSG defender Achraf Hakimi said he believes Dembélé has recovered well.
“He really wants to play,” Hakimi said. “Ousmane is a different kind of player. He makes you want to go and watch the game in the stadium, he can change the course of a match at any moment, he’s a genius with the ball. We’re delighted to have him back.”
According to UEFA statistics, PSG has won 18 of the 19 ties in which it won a first leg away, while Arsenal has never overturned a home first-leg defeat in European competition, losing all five ties. Enrique, however, isn't counting on history ahead of the match at the Parc des Princes.
“We’re bound to suffer because our opponents don’t have a favorable result,” Enrique told reporters. "We need to match our performance as closely as possible in the first leg to win the return leg and stay true to our ideas.”
Both teams are looking for a first Champions League title, and second final. PSG lost to Borussia Dortmund at this stage last year. The French side lost to Bayern Munich in its only Champions League final in 2020, while Arsenal was runner-up to Barcelona in 2006.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said his team will do most of its talking when the whistle blows on Wednesday.
“We are here to make history, we have a big opportunity tomorrow,” Arteta said Tuesday at a Paris news conference.
Arsenal has won its last four away matches in the Champions League, including a 2-1 victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in the quarterfinals.
“It's Madrid against all the odds because obviously they were talking about all the comebacks and the history and what they did,” he said. "We proved something very different to what they expected and tomorrow we want to do the same.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Arsenal's Declan Rice, left, with Arsenal's Martin Odegaard, right, during a training session in London, England, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, ahead of the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly arrives during a training session in London, England, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, ahead of the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta looks on during a training session in London, England, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, ahead of the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique applauds the fans at the end of the Champions League semifinal first leg soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at Arsenal Stadium in London, England, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Paris Saint Germain's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Champions League semifinal first leg soccer match between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain at Emirates Stadium in London, England, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Yaxzodara Lozada woke up Monday freezing after sleeping on the sidewalk outside a prison in Venezuela’s capital, hoping her husband, a police officer who was detained on Nov. 17, will walk free as part of a goodwill effort the government announced last week.
While Venezuelan commerce and daily life have begun to resume — with malls, schools and gyms reopening a week after a stunning U.S. attack led to the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro — the promised release of imprisoned opposition figures, civil society leaders and journalists has materialized only in a trickle, prompting criticism.
Relatives of many of the more than 800 people that human rights organizations say are imprisoned in Venezuela for political reasons began gathering outside prisons Thursday, when the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez pledged to free a significant number of prisoners in what it described as a gesture to “seek peace.” Officials have not identified or given a number of prisoners being considered for release, leaving rights groups scouring for hints of information and families to wait anxiously.
As of Monday afternoon, the Venezuelan advocacy group Foro Penal had verified the release of 49 prisoners. Among those confirmed freed were several foreign nationals holding Italian, Spanish, Argentine, Israeli and Colombian citizenship.
Also on Monday, the White House confirmed that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.
Over the weekend, Trump said the releases came at Washington’s request.
“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners,” Trump wrote Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
Others criticized the government for not fulfilling its promise of releasing a significant number of people.
On Monday, the U.N.-backed fact-finding mission on Venezuela welcomed the release of prisoners, but said in a statement that the amount of people released in recent days “falls far short” of the wider demand for the “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.”
Lozada said she had not seen her husband since he was detained on Nov. 17 — an arrest for which she says no reason was ever given.
Next to her, relatives of other detainees stretched and looked for water after spending the night on the ground, using old couch cushions and pieces of foam. In front of them, cars kept going by to drop off students at a school adjacent to the prison.
“These are two realities. They want the world to see that everything is normal, that nothing happened here,” said Jenny Quiroz, whose husband was detained Nov. 26 at his pharmacy in Caracas for allegedly criticizing the government in a WhatsApp group. “But it’s a mixture of anguish, despair…. You know what it’s like to have 48 days without knowing if he eats, if they have him isolated, if they are psychologically or physically torturing him?”
Quiroz said she wanted Trump to know that the information he is receiving regarding prison releases “is not 100% true.”
As relatives awaited news of their loved ones at prisons, the government deployed security forces to public schools around the country for the first day of classes since the holiday break. Uniformed students walked the streets of Caracas some alone and others accompanied by adults.
The Venezuelan government has tried to push forward a message of normalcy after the U.S. military operation that rocked the nation.
During a school tour broadcast on state television, acting President Rodríguez — surrounded by children — railed against the Trump administration while simultaneously striking an optimistic tone about the country’s future. She said her country is “actively resisting” the U.S. while “we’re writing a new page in Venezuelan history."
While teachers braced for questions from students about the Jan. 3 attack, preschool teacher Ángela Ramírez said the topic did not come up in her classroom.
“I didn’t address it because I didn’t notice the interest and a need in them to know what’s going on,” she said. “They are happy to be back at school."
Associated Press writer Megan Janetsky contributed from Mexico City.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
A photo of Edilson Torres, a Venezuelan police officer who died in prison a month after being arrested on accusations of treason, and his family adorns his coffin during his wake at his home in Guanare, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Emelyn Torres and Maria Cristina Fernandez, the sister and grandmother of Edilson Torres, a Venezuelan police officer who died in prison after being detained on accusations of treason, embrace during his wake at his home in Guanare, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Flor Zambrano, whose son, Rene Chourio, she says is detained at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police for political reasons, embraces relatives of other detainees outside the facility in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A man sits on steps decorated with a mural representing the eyes of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Children return to school after the holiday break in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Flor Zambrano, whose son, Rene Chourio, she says is detained at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police for political reasons, embraces relatives of other detainees outside the facility in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Relatives of political detainees wait outside Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police after spending the night there in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Relatives wait outside Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police, where political detainees are held, after spending the night there in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
