PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique may be unsure how to approach the second leg of the Champions League playoff against Monaco on Wednesday.
Although PSG is 3-2 ahead, protecting leads is not his style. But attacking too much against a technically strong Monaco side could expose his team to costly counterattacks.
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Monaco's Folarin Balogun celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the first-leg of the Champions League playoff soccer match between Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain in Monaco, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)
Monaco's Folarin Balogun, second right, scores the opening goal during the first-leg of the Champions League playoff soccer match between Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain in Monaco, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)
FILE - Monaco's Ansu Fati, right, is congratulated by Monaco's Takumi Minamino after scoring his sides first goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Monaco at the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges, Belgium, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, file)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique reacts during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Metz in Paris, France, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Coach Sébastien Pocognoli's Monaco has 13 goals in the past six games. Although two of those have been defeats, the attack is looking much sharper.
Monaco went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes against PSG last week, only for clumsy defending to allow PSG back into the game. Against Lens on Saturday, Monaco overturned a 2-0 deficit with a three-goal burst in 10 second-half minutes.
PSG's defense looks weaker than last season — conceding against Monaco after just 55 seconds — and is not helped by uncertainty over the goalkeeper.
“The team can improve defensively at the moment,” Luis Enrique said at a pre-game news conference. “When you are 2-0 down within 20 minutes it normally ends in disaster. But we have shown this season and last that we can overcome any difficulty."
Since Gianluigi Donnarumma’s departure, Luis Enrique has alternated between Matvei Safonov and summer signing Lucas Chevalier.
Pairing Ansu Fati and Folarin Balogun in attack could be Pocognoli’s best option.
Fati has nine goals in 20 games, including a fine lob in against Lens on Saturday.
The former Barcelona teenage prodigy has been hampered by minor injuries this season. He went on as a substitute against Lens but Pocognoli is likely to start him against PSG.
Balogun has also dealt with injuries but finally seems fully fit. The American forward's two goals against PSG last week and his opportunist strike against Lens showed he is back in form.
Their movement up front, allied to the runs of attacking midfielder Maghnes Akliouche, may stretch PSG's defense and leave space for midfielders behind.
Fati and Akliouche can dribble at speed, while Balogun’s versatility allows him to play wide or through the middle.
Rapid counterattacks are Monaco's strength.
When Monaco beat PSG 1-0 in Ligue 1 in November the goal came from a quick break. On Saturday, the third goal against Lens was a slick counterattack ending with Fati's lob.
PSG showed vulnerability to quick balls played behind the full backs when it lost at Rennes 3-1 this month; while Monaco's first goal last Tuesday saw left back Caio Henrique finding space behind right back Achraf Hakimi and Aleksandr Golovin crossing for Balogun to head in.
Henrique and right back Vanderson both like to attack. This may force Luis Enrique to instruct his own attacking full backs, Hakimi and left back Nuno Gomes, not to push up too much.
PSG will be without star forward Ousmane Dembélé
The Ballon d’Or winner came off with a calf injury last Tuesday and missed Saturday’s home game against Metz in Ligue 1.
Dembélé has been hampered by injuries and has hardly played a full season during his career, with setbacks affecting his six seasons at Barcelona before he joined PSG.
“I don’t know how long (Dembélé will be out for), it depends on certain things," Luis Enrique said. “We don’t want to take any risks. It’s not serious but we need to be patient.”
Fabián Ruiz remains sidelined. The Spain midfielder has not played for PSG since hurting his left knee on Jan. 20 in the 2-1 defeat at Sporting Lisbon.
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Monaco's Folarin Balogun celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the first-leg of the Champions League playoff soccer match between Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain in Monaco, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)
Monaco's Folarin Balogun, second right, scores the opening goal during the first-leg of the Champions League playoff soccer match between Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain in Monaco, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)
FILE - Monaco's Ansu Fati, right, is congratulated by Monaco's Takumi Minamino after scoring his sides first goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Club Brugge and Monaco at the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges, Belgium, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, file)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique reacts during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Metz in Paris, France, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Mohamad Al-Assi ran beneath the concrete wall as the sun rose over Bethlehem. His Nikes pounded the gravel, his breath fogging the air as graffiti and paint splatter blurred past with each stride.
The road along the barrier separating Israel from the occupied West Bank makes up a stretch of a marathon route that Al-Assi and thousands of others ran on Friday. The event is open to people in other parts of the world running in solidarity with the Palestinians and another, shorter race was happening in Gaza.
The race, known as the Palestine Marathon, was held for the first time in three years and was among the first big international events in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Festivals, conferences and holiday festivities that once drew thousands have been scaled back or canceled because of the war in Gaza and heightened Israeli restrictions.
It marked a turning point for Al-Assi, 27, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago. Video from that day shows him gaunt-faced and hollow-eyed, his once muscular legs weakened after more than two and a half years of prison.
He began training in December, gradually upping his mileage every month since. He ran 62 miles (100 kilometers) that first month, and in April reached 135 miles (217 kilometers), according to his account on the tracking app Strava.
He jogs in the morning after his mother wakes him up in their home in Dheisheh, a Palestinian refugee camp made up of graffiti-covered cinderblock homes in tangled alleyways.
“The main difficulties we face are the cars on the roads and the presence of Israeli security forces along the route where I train,” Al-Assi said.
He had to suspend his training several times because of military operations in the camp.
“I would return home feeling hopeless because I couldn't do what I had intended to do,” Al-Assi said.
In the West Bank, runners cannot complete a 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) course without hitting a checkpoint or military gate, which is why Friday's marathon route looped around the same circuit twice.
They ran up through the narrow streets of two Palestinian refugee camps and down to a farming town next to Bethlehem where fields are divided by the concrete wall, barbed wire and cameras. The course hooked back to finish at Bethlehem’s Manger Square.
Organizers say the race highlights restrictions facing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where checkpoints can disrupt even routine commutes and where open land for hiking, biking and running is increasingly taken by Israeli settlements and outposts.
“Marathon runners anywhere may ‘hit a wall’ under the physical and emotional strain of completing the 42-kilometer race course," they said on the marathon's website.
But in the West Bank, they added, "runners literally hit the Wall.”
At a time when the West Bank’s economy is struggling and in the shadow of Gaza's fragile ceasefire and stalled rebuilding efforts, the atmosphere in Bethlehem was celebratory. Crowds gathered near the Church of the Nativity to cheer runners at the race's early morning start and finish. Bagpipes blared and drummers pounded out traditional rhythms through streets along the route.
On a beachside road in Nuseirat in central Gaza — which is roughly the length of a marathon — 15 disabled people, including amputees, ran a 2K, and a couple thousand of people ran a 5K. Thirteen years after the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, canceled a 2013 marathon because Hamas forbade women from participating, the women were back.
Haya Alnaji, a 22-year-old woman who ran in the 5K, said the number of people taking part reflected that Palestinians in Gaza were determined to live and persevere despite the devastation wrought by more than two years of war.
“All of Gaza loves sports,” she said.
Al-Assi was arrested in April 2023, and imprisoned under administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold detainees for months without charge. Between 3,000 and 4,000 Palestinians are being held under that system, according to Israeli rights groups and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
In October 2023, Al-Assi was sentenced for transferring money to suspicious entities, a charge he denies. Israel closely monitors money transfers — particularly to Gaza — for fear that funds could end up in the hands of militants. Palestinians, however, say donations and charitable contributions are often swept up in the dragnet. Israel’s military, Shin Bet and Prison Service did not answer questions about Al-Assi's charges.
In Israeli prisons — where detainees routinely complain of inadequate diets — Al-Assi said nearly everyone goes hungry. The weight he lost eroded the endurance built through 10 years of training.
“I have more muscle mass than fat, so when I lost weight, the loss came from my muscles rather than fat,” he said. “This had a major impact on my physical fitness.”
He also had to regain the mental fortitude to run a marathon.
“I was emotionally shattered after spending such a long period in prison,” he said.
On Friday, he collapsed to his knees, bowing and thanking God after finishing second overall, as supporters and journalists encircled him. He dedicated his run to Palestinians still in Israeli detention.
“After 32 months in prison, Mohamad Al-Assi is first in his class!” he shouted through tears, raising his hands and looking up to the sky.
__ Imad Isseid contributed from Bethlehem, West Bank and Abdel Kareem Hana from Nuseirat, Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian amputee runner takes part in the 2-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian runners take part in the 5-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Runners participate in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Runners pass by Israel's separation wall as they compete in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian Mohamad Al-Assi, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago, runs past Israel's separation wall as he trains ahead of the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Metz)
