PARIS (AP) — Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain recovered from its Ligue 1 loss to Lyon with a 3-0 victory over relegation-threatened Nantes on Wednesday.
PSG’s home win – in a game postponed from mid-March to allow the team to better prepare for its Champions League last-16 clash with Chelsea – keeps it four points above Lens with four rounds of the French league remaining.
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PSG's Desire Doue controls the ball during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Desire Doue celebrates his goal during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Desire Doue, left, and Nantes' Nicolas Cozza challenge for the ball during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Warren Zaire-Emery, left, challenge with Nantes' Matthis Abline during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia celebrates after scoring during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Kvaratskhelia opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 13th minute. It was awarded after a VAR check penalized Nantes defender Frédéric Guilbert for handball because Marquinhos’ header brushed against his arm.
Louis Leroux thought he’d equalized when he fired in a loose ball after PSG failed to deal with a free kick, but the next VAR decision also went against the visitors. After a lengthy delay, the goal was ruled out for offside.
There was nothing wrong with Desiré Doué’s brilliant goal in the 37th, when Achraf Hakimi played him through before he left fly with a fierce strike from a difficult angle inside the far corner.
Kvaratskhelia grabbed his second after the break, shimmying past two defenders and poking the ball past Anthony Lopes in the Nantes goal.
Guilbert caught Doué with a bad challenge late on but the winger was able to continue.
PSG, the title holder, faces Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinals with the first leg in Paris on Tuesday.
Elye Wahi scored twice – the second a penalty – to steer Strasbourg into the French Cup final with a 2-0 win over visiting Nice.
Strasbourg will play Lens in the May 22 decider in the Stade de France, after Lens defeated Toulouse 4-1 in the first semifinal on Tuesday.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
PSG's Desire Doue controls the ball during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Desire Doue celebrates his goal during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Desire Doue, left, and Nantes' Nicolas Cozza challenge for the ball during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Warren Zaire-Emery, left, challenge with Nantes' Matthis Abline during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia celebrates after scoring during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Ex-rugby league international Kane Evans won’t have to worry about the extortion threats any more or be concerned about his family finding out about his sexuality before he’s ready to tell them.
In a television interview Monday with Channel Nine’s “100% Footy,” Evans said he was gay and that he felt like a weight had lifted off him when he finally could talk about it publicly.
Evans is the first high-level rugby league player in Australia to come out as gay since Ian Roberts in 1995.
Evans played 131 games in the elite National Rugby League from 2014-2021 for clubs including the Sydney Roosters, Parramatta and the New Zealand-based Warriors before finishing off his professional career in England in 2023. He played 13 international games for Fiji.
“I had three goals in life: It was to play NRL, to buy my parents a house, and then I wanted to top myself, because I was living in denial from a young age,” the 34-year-old Evans said in the television interview. “I know that I’m gay. But I went down every other avenue to sort of build up these walls ... to escape who I am.”
After struggling with addiction and suicidal thoughts as he dealt with his sexuality as a younger man and professional footballer, and then experiencing homelessness after a business collapse in his post-rugby league career, Evans finally got the support he needed.
Evans said it was only after talking to Joe Galuvao, a former player who works with the Rugby League Players’ Association, that he realized help was so close.
“I thank God that he came and visited me and got me into rehab with the help of the RLPA,” Evans said.
Others in the football fraternity reached out, Evans said. Like Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who helped pay the bills while Evans was in rehabilitation and invited him back into the club.
“He called me just to let me know that the Roosters are still my home and they’ve got my back, whatever I’m facing,” Evans said. “That meant the world to me. He took me, my best friend, and one of my mentors to Roosters HQ a week after I got out of rehab."
Evans had planned to come out to his family before the television interview aired.
“I've been fighting a war within since I was about 15 years old and it's not sustainable,” he said. “I’m here today to show people that you don’t have to live like that. Even now I feel a bit more free, just by saying it out loud, I’ve brought it to the light."
Evans said he'd had “people blackmail me … I’ve had people try to deflect their problems by trying to out me. And it just built up a lot of shame, and fear and guilt within myself.”
“Now I’ve spoken about it, I’ve shattered all those chains. They’ve lost their power," he added. “I feel like coming and speaking to you today, fear, shame, guilt -- all of that, I’ve cut ties with all that. I feel peace within.”
Roberts, who played for Australia in the 1990s, described Evans' interview as an “extraordinary moment” and “I was in tears watching.”
“I am so proud of him,” Roberts told News Corp. “Everything he was saying ... I thought ‘this poor kid,’ I know exactly where he is in his head, what he is going through, the extremes of uncertainty of your own sense of self and your sense of other people.”
Andrew Johns, one of rugby league's greatest players, said the bravery Evans had shown would be encouraging for other people.
“To come out and tell the world, especially the rugby league world, it's incredibly strong," Johns told the Nine network. “There's going to be so much love for him in the rugby league — he's going to save a lot of lives.”
Johns said there were a lot of young people struggling with their sexuality and when “they see someone like Kane and the pain he's gone through, and the strength he's shown, it'll help them stand up and talk to parents, or people close to them.”
“So Kane, well done mate," he added. "We all love you. Incredibly proud of you.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Kane Evans of the Parramatta Eels, top, is tackled by Bayley Sironen of the South Sydney Rabbitohs during their National Rugby League match between in Sydney, on Aug. 27, 2020. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image via AP)
