PARIS (AP) — Bradley Barcola scored two goals and set one up as Paris Saint-Germain beat Reims 3-0 in the French Cup final on Saturday and stayed on course for its first continental treble.
Barcola was assisted twice by Désiré Doué and created a goal for right back Achraf Hakimi late in the first half.
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PSG's players celebrate after winning the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Marquinhos rises the trophy after winning the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique, center, celebrates at the end of the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's players celebrate their side second goal scored by Bradley Barcola during the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Bradley Barcola (29) scores his side's opening goal during the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
The victory gave PSG a record-extending 16th French Cup — six more than next-best Marseille — and completed a domestic double after a record-extending 13th Ligue 1 title was sealed in dominant fashion.
The only trophy missing in the cabinet of the cash-rich Qatari-backed club is the Champions League's.
That might change next Saturday.
Coach Luis Enrique's PSG will attempt to win the Champions League for the first time when it faces Inter Milan in Munich. PSG lost its only other final to Bayern Munich during the pandemic-shortened 2020 competition.
Reims was once France’s top club and reached the Champions League final twice — when it was the European Cup — losing both times to Real Madrid in the 1950s.
But Saturday's contest was a total mismatch with the first half almost resembling a training session for PSG.
Doué sent Barcola clean through in the 16th minute with a superb angled pass from midfield and the France winger finished neatly into the bottom left corner.
Three minutes later, Doué found space on the right and his quick pass gave Barcola an easy finish from close range.
Doué was named in the starting team only shortly before the start after winger Khvitcha Kvaratskhelia reportedly pulled out with headaches.
With halftime approaching, Barcola whipped over a left-wing cross and Hakimi volleyed in neatly from close range.
PSG dropped off in the second half and and created little except for Ousmane Dembélé's effort hitting the crossbar.
Luis Enrique is within sight of his second continental treble in 10 years after achieving the first with Lionel Messi-led Barcelona.
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PSG's players celebrate after winning the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Marquinhos rises the trophy after winning the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique, center, celebrates at the end of the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's players celebrate their side second goal scored by Bradley Barcola during the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Bradley Barcola (29) scores his side's opening goal during the French Cup soccer final between Paris Saint-Germain and Reims at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
