PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique faces a difficult strategic dilemma.
As he pursues back-to-back Champions League trophies, Luis Enrique must ensure he's also still fielding competitive teams in the closing stages of Ligue 1.
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FILE - Marseille players warm up prior to the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Union SG and Marseilles in Brussels, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Joao Neves celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, center, scelebrates after scoring his side's first goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Brilliant on the European stage, PSG has been less dominant domestically and holds a six-point lead over second-placed Lens.
Both sides have four games left and Luis Enrique’s team has to travel to Lens on May 13, postponed from April 11 due to PSG’s involvement in the Champions League.
The reigning French champion hosts mid-table Lorient at the Parc des Princes on Saturday followed by next week's trip to Bayern, where it will defend a one-goal advantage after a thrilling 5-4 win over the Bundesliga champion midweek.
PSG's squad depth gives Luis Enrique plenty of options, but heavy rotation this month backfired in a 2-1 home defeat to Lyon as substitutes Illia Zabarnyi, Gonçalo Ramos and Lucas Beraldo underperformed.
Lens came back from two goals down but dropped important points in a 3-3 draw at Brest last week. The northern side has no room for mistakes when it travels south to Nice on Saturday.
Behind PSG and Lens, the fight for the Champions League places is intense.
Seven-time champion Lyon and fourth-placed Lille are level on points with the top three gaining direct entry to the Champions League, and the side in fourth entering qualifying. Lyon hosts in-from Rennes on Sunday while Lille takes on Le Havre.
Lagging four points behind Lyon, sixth-placed Marseille still hopes to secure Champions League football and travels to struggling Nantes on Saturday.
Elye Wahi: The 23-year-old Wahi is finding the form that once made him among Europe’s most promising young strikers. Back in Ligue 1 with Nice on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt, Wahi has been scoring decisive goals for Nice, including last week's penalty that secured a 1-1 draw at his former club Marseille.
Sebastian Nanasi: The Swedish attacking midfielder grabbed the spotlight in Malmö before landing in Strasbourg during the 2024 summer. Looking to secure a spot at the World Cup, Nanasi has been in top form in the Conference League with decisive goals and assists.
PSG will be without defender Achraf Hakimi, who will also will miss the return leg of the Champions League semifinal against Bayern because of a right thigh injury. He will be out of action for several weeks. PSG second-choice goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier has also been ruled out for weeks after injuring his right thigh during training while forward Gonçalo Ramos is suspended for the match against Lorient.
Toulouse coach Carles Martínez Novell is leaving at the end of the season. Toulouse announced the decision on Wednesday with the team sitting 10th in the standings. The Spanish coach arrived at Toulouse initially as an assistant coach, winning the French Cup in 2023, and was appointed permanent coach the following season. Martínez Novell led Toulouse to one of its greatest wins when the southern side upset Liverpool 3-2 in a Europa League game in November 2023.
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FILE - Marseille players warm up prior to the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Union SG and Marseilles in Brussels, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Joao Neves celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, center, scelebrates after scoring his side's first goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during a Champions League semifinal, first leg, soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's supreme leader said Thursday that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, likely seeking to draw a hard line as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks a wider deal to cement the shaky ceasefire now holding in the war.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, speaking in a written statement read by a state television anchor as he has since taking over as Iran's supreme leader, struck a defiant tone, insisting the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters" and that a “new chapter” was being written in the region's history.
However, his remarks come as Iran's oil industry has begun to be squeezed by a U.S. Navy blockade halting its oil tankers from getting out to sea. Meanwhile, benchmark Brent crude for June delivery reached as much as $126 a barrel in trading on Thursday as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded passes.
All this is putting additional pressure on the world's economy as Trump likely weighs how to respond.
“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei said in the statement, read like all others since he reportedly was wounded in the Feb. 28 attack that killed his father, the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it — except at the bottom of its waters.”
With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.
The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.
A recent Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons. Iran long has maintained its program is peaceful, though it enriched uranium at near-weapons-grade levels of 60%.
Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei's remarks signaled that nuclear issues and Iran's ballistic missile program wouldn't be traded away.
“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities — from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities — as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said.
He referred to America as the “Great Satan,” a long hurled insult by Iranian leaders toward the U.S. since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In his remarks, Khamenei seemed to signal Iran would maintain its control over the waterway, which sits in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. Iran had been charging some ships reportedly $2 million apiece to travel through the strait.
“Islamic Iran, by giving practical thanks for the blessing of exercising control over the Strait of Hormuz, will make the Persian Gulf region secure and put an end to the hostile enemy’s abuses of this waterway,” Khamenei said. “The legal rules and new management of the Strait of Hormuz will bring comfort and progress for the benefit of all the region’s nations, and its economic gains will gladden the hearts of the people.”
However, the world considered the strait an international waterway, open to all without paying tolls. Gulf Arab nations, chief among them the United Arab Emirates, have decried Iran's control of the strait as akin to piracy.
Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
A woman holds up pictures of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, left, and his father, the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a state-organised rally celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims' Imam, and supporting the supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman carries an Iranian flag and a poster of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a state-organised rally in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims' Imam, and supporting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A police officer stands guard in front of a banner with portraits of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a state-organised rally celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims' Imam, and supporting the supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Girls sing a song as they show the movement of missiles with their hands next to the portraits of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in a state-organised rally celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims' Imam, and supporting the supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
