PARIS (AP) — Ousmane Dembélé scored twice in the first half as Paris Saint-Germain beat Toulouse 3-1 and increased its lead of Ligue 1 to four points on Friday.
The game was brought forward to give PSG more recovery time ahead of next Wednesday’s Champions League quarterfinal with Liverpool at the Parc des Princes.
PSG came into the match having scored 12 goals in its last three games and it took the lead midway through the opening period when Dembélé crashed a superb volley into the top corner from the edge of the 18-yard box.
However, four minutes later goalkeeper Matvey Safonov could not secure a wicked in-swinging corner and Rasmus Nicolaisen headed home the rebound to level the scores.
Dembélé restored PSG’s lead 12 minutes before halftime. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia headed on a corner kick and former Dortmund and Barcelona forward Dembélé was on hand to side-foot the ball over the line.
He had a third goal disallowed for offside in a second half dominated by the home side but it wasn’t until stoppage time that PSG added a third, substitute Gonçalo Ramos stroking home with his right foot from 25 meters.
The result lifted PSG four points clear of Lens, which travels to fifth-placed Lille on Saturday for the Derby du Nord.
Toulouse remained in ninth place.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Toulouse's Dayann Methalie fouls PSG's Lee Kang-in during a League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse in Paris, France, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele, left, and Toulouse's Dayann Methalie fight for the ball during a League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse in Paris, France, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Toulouse's Seny Koumbassa, left, and PSG's Ousmane Dembele fight for the ball during a League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse in Paris, France, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.
NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.
The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows. The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.
“It’s great to think that with the exception of our four friends, all of us are represented in this image," said NASA's Lakiesha Hawkins, an exploration systems leader. She added the mission was going well.
As of late Friday afternoon, Wiseman and his crew were more than 110,000 miles (180,000 kilometers) from Earth and were quickly gaining on the moon with another 150,000 miles (240,000 kilometers) to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.
The three Americans and one Canadian will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping. They fired Orion's main engine Thursday night that set them on their course.
After Mission Control shifted the position of their capsule, the entire Earth complete with northern lights filled their windows.
“It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said in a TV interview.
They're the first lunar travelers since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
This image taken from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Canadien astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch and pilot Victor Glover as they appear on a video conference from the moon's orbit Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This image provided by NASA shows a downlink image of Earth taken by NASA’s Artemis II astronaut commander Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule on Friday, April 3, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This image provided by NASA shows a view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from of the Orion spacecraft's window after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)
