Lens and PSG resume Ligue 1 title battle with Marseille waiting to pounce

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Lens and PSG resume Ligue 1 title battle with Marseille waiting to pounce

2025-12-31 20:58 Last Updated At：21:10

PARIS (AP) — Lens begins the year one point ahead of defending champion Paris Saint-Germain in what French fans hope will be a close title race in Ligue 1.

PSG won a record-extending 13th title by 19 points last term, losing its only two games of the campaign after the title was sealed, and by nine points the season before that.

But it promises to be closer this time, with PSG already losing twice and being held to three draws.

Led by the flair of goal-scoring winger Florian Thauvin, Lens opens the 17th round at Toulouse on Friday while, on Sunday, PSG hosts Paris FC in the first intercity derby in the capital since 1990.

A slip up from Lens or PSG may open the door for third-place Marseille, which hosts struggling Nantes on Sunday.

Mid-table Monaco hosts fifth-place Lyon on Saturday and desperately needs to find consistency after losing five of its past six league games.

Monaco's only victory during that dismal spell came against PSG.

After ending a nine-game losing run with a win in the French Cup, and then changing coaches, it's time for Nice to start winning again in Ligue 1.

Nice sits 13th ahead of Saturday’s game against Strasbourg.

Tensions have been running high at Nice, which replaced struggling coach Franck Haise with Claude Puel, 64, who was previously in charge from 2012-16.

Midfielder Pavel Šulc has made quite an impression for Lyon since joining from Czech club Jablonec in the offseason on a four-year contract.

Šulc has hit nine goals in 22 games overall.

Brazil striker Endrick hopes to be scoring plenty of goals for Lyon, too, after joining from Real Madrid on loan until the end of the season.

The 19-year-old Endrick has hardly featured in coach Xabi Alonso’s Madrid team this season, playing only three games, but is expected to make Brazil's World Cup squad next year.

PSG right back Achraf Hakimi is in action for host Morocco at the Africa Cup of Nations. Clubmate Ibrahim Mbaye is playing up front for Senegal in the competition. PSG colleagues Matveï Safonov (goalkeeper) and Quentin Ndjantou (forward) are injured.

Safonov is recovering from a fractured hand sustained during a penalty shootout win, while the 18-year-old Ndjantou is nursing a thigh tear.

But PFC will be without skilful midfielder Ilan Kebbal — the club's top scorer with six goals — who is playing for Algeria at the AFCON.

Around 40 PSG fans were stopped by police last Saturday night near the landmark Trocadéro esplanade for setting off flares and fireworks, without authorization to do so in public.

They did it to celebrate PSG's successful year, which saw the club win the Champions League for the first time and clinch the domestic double as well as the Intercontinental Cup.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

NATO allies bewildered by Trump's about-face on US troop moves in Europe

HELSINGBORG, Sweden (AP) — NATO allies and defense officials expressed bewilderment Friday at U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number of forces pulled out of Europe.

The apparent change of mind came after weeks of statements from Trump and his administration about reducing — not increasing — the U.S. military footprint in Europe. Trump's initial order set off a flurry of action among military commanders and left allies already doubtful about America's commitment to Europe's security to ponder what forces they might have to backfill on NATO's eastern flank with Russia and Ukraine.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration said it was reducing levels in Europe by about 5,000 troops, and U.S. officials confirmed about 4,000 service members were no longer rotating into Poland from Germany. The dispatch to Germany of U.S. personnel trained to fire long-range missiles was also halted.

But in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said he would now send "an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland,” citing his strong ties with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, whom Trump endorsed in elections last year.

“It is confusing indeed, and not always easy to navigate,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told reporters Friday at a meeting she was hosting of her NATO counterparts, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Ministers from the Netherlands and Norway were sanguine about Trump’s latest move, as was Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže, who said allies knew the U.S. troop “posture was being reconsidered, and now there is no change of posture. For now.”

U.S. defense officials also expressed confusion. “We just spent the better part of two weeks reacting to the first announcement. We don’t know what this means either,” said one of two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

But Rubio said Washington’s allies understand that changes in the U.S. troop presence in Europe will come as the Trump administration reevaluates its force needs. “I think there’s a broad recognition that there are going to be eventually less U.S. troops in Europe than there has historically been for a variety of reasons,” he said.

The latest surprise came despite a U.S. pledge to coordinate troop deployments, including one from NATO’s top military officer, U.S. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, on Wednesday.

Trump's initial announcement that he would withdraw troops came as he fumed over remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said that the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized what he called a lack of strategy in that war.

Trump told reporters that the U.S. would be cutting even more than 5,000 and also announced new tariffs on European cars. Germany is the continent’s biggest auto producer.

Rubio insisted that Trump’s decision “is not a punitive thing. It’s just something that’s ongoing.”

About 80,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Europe. The Pentagon is required to keep at least 76,000 troops and major equipment on the continent unless NATO allies are consulted and there is a determination that such a withdrawal is in U.S. interests.

The withdrawal of 5,000 troops might drop numbers below that limit.

But Trump's latest post suggests that troop numbers in Europe would not change. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski welcomed the decision to send more forces to his country, saying it ensures that “the presence of American troops in Poland will be maintained more or less at previous levels.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also welcomed the move. On Thursday, before Trump took to Truth Social again, Rutte had underlined that it was important for Europe to take care of its own security. “We have a process in place. This is normal business,” he told reporters.

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, meanwhile, U.S. officials briefed the allies on the Pentagon's aims for its commitments to the NATO Force Model, which involves contingency planning for Europe’s defense in the event of serious security concerns. It was widely expected that a further reduction of U.S. forces would be coming.

Asked whether any cuts were announced, Rutte said: “I’m afraid it’s much more complicated than that.” He said the procedure “is highly classified” and declined to give details.

Rubio played down concerns about a shift in U.S. force levels in Europe, saying: "Every country has to constantly reevaluate what their needs are, what their commitments are around the world, and how to properly structure that.”

Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Emma Burrows in London contributed.