Newcastle vs PSG: Match Report
A battle between two of the world's wealthiest clubs took place last night at St James’ Park. Mbappe, Dembele, Marquinhos, Donnarumma and Luis Enrique travelled to the north of England to face off against Eddie Howes's army. This was Newcastle's first Champions League home game since the 2002/03 season.
From the first whistle, the atmosphere inside the ground looked electric, everyone was up for it with every Newcastle tackle being cheered on by 50,000 Geordies. Initially, PSG were able to get forward and Mbappe sent a ball over to Dembele who dragged it just wide of the far post. That was an early sign for Burn to stick tight to Dembele and not allow him any space. All eyes were on the Parisian club's wingers and how Newcastle were going to neutralise their threats going forward.
Newcastle fans didn’t have to wait long before they were celebrating goals and not tackles. PSG looked lost at the back and struggled to progress the ball. Marquinhos played a chip into Muani which was cut out allowing Isak the shot, which was impressively saved by the Italian in goal, before the rebound was fired back across goal by Almiron securing Newcastle their first Champions League goal of the campaign. The stadium erupted and it seemed the pressure and the noise of St James’ Park was getting the better of Paris Saint Germain.
Tactically in the first half, it looked as though Enrique had got it all wrong. He had two in midfield and 4 spread out across the front line, but he had no plan of how to get it to them through Newcastle's midfield. They completely shut off the passing lanes and overloaded the midfield against Ugarte and Zaire-Emery who had no chance. Despite PSG seeing a lot more of the ball having 66% possession in the first half, most of that was seen by their defenders and they created nothing after the initial chance from Dembele.
Matters went from bad to worse for the ex-Barcelona and Spanish national team coach. Trippier, a set piece specialist, delivered a great ball from a free kick which Lascelles made a meal of before Ugarte was inches away from scoring an own goal. Donnarumma pushed it back out to Bruno Guimaraes who forced another save at the near post and then floated it across the 6-yard box for Burn to head it over the line before the keeper could get to it. The assistant referee awarded an offside, but VAR checked this and after a long deliberation the goal was given to Newcastle-born Dan Burn to score a goal for his local club in their long-awaited return to European football. The Magpies went into the half 2-0 up with the place absolutely rocking.
Surprisingly the second half starts with Enrique making no changes or tactical tweaks to his team as they play the same brand of football that cost them two goals in the first half. Not even 5 minutes into the half Trippier slots a ball through to Longstaff who made a great run into the box from midfield which wasn’t picked up by anybody sporting blue. He shot it first time straight at Donnarumma at his near post and the ball went right through him hitting the underside of his arm and bouncing into the goal for Newcastle to pick up their third goal of the night. A mixture of poor goalkeeping and an opportunistic shot made for another Geordie to get on the scoresheet.
PSG were not completely out of the game yet and strung together their best and only passage of play in the final third with Zaire-Emery providing a gorgeous chip over the Newcastle backline. Lucas Hernandez met it with his head and glanced it past Pope. 3-1. They were back in the game. Shortly after Vitinha and Barcola were welcomed to the field in place of Kolo Muani who had an exceptionally quiet evening as well as Ugarte. This did shake up the game and give them some more stability in midfield which meant they were playing the ball forward getting their attacking stars on the ball to work their magic. They needed to isolate Newcastle’s fullbacks against their wingers but were never given the opportunity as Eddie Howe’s men were exceptionally coached, disciplined and drilled. Mbappe often was faced by Tripper and two others in black and white who were dropping in for support. However, this left them exposed on the other side, if they could quickly work the ball around to Dembele, he would have a chance against Burn, but he never produced enough.
He did have one opportunity where Newcastle had pressed forward and were caught out by a ball over the top which Dembele had run onto leaving Burn behind him, but the shot went wide. Jamal Lascelles had covered the ground quickly and applied pressure on the Frenchmen to shoot when he didn’t want to, he put in a phenomenal performance in place of Botman and made another last-ditch tackle to prevent the Parisians from bearing down on goal later on in the game.
When the game looked finished, Fabian Schar found himself winning the ball back in the final third and feeding Murphy who laid it off for Schar to rifle it into the top corner from 25 yards out against one of the best goalkeepers in the world. In injury time PSG found themselves 4-1 down away from home in one of the liveliest atmospheres in Europe after an astounding finish from a centre-back no less.
At the end of the match the better team won, they saw less of the ball but had a much higher quality on it. They were better in every single position on the pitch and PSG were well beaten. PSG struggled to get their main men into the game and a lot of that lies in the hands of Luis Enrique who decided to play with 4 forwards leaving the midfield lacking numbers. Off the ball, the majority of their team was really quick to press and win it back quickly, but on the ball, they didn’t have the quality to progress it and create opportunities. Their backline looked really weak, Skriniar was short of pace, slow to close players down and was manhandled by Dan Burn for the 2nd goal. The crowd got under their skin and once the first goal went in it was all downhill from there. Mbappe had little to no effect on the game and was kept quiet and barely received the ball.
Newcastle on the other hand completely deserved their win, emphatic from the off and ran PSG off the park. Their midfield was far superior and did not allow PSG to pass or dribble through them. They looked very dangerous from set pieces, they had a corner which ended in a shot curling around the post, the physicality of Burn and Lascelles was a lot to deal with and their opposition did not have the answers. Defensively they were really organised, and all knew exactly what their role was in order to eradicate threats which they did so effectively. Newcastle are up and running in the Champions League and top of the group of death with a serious chance of making the round of 16.
