Kylian Mbappe’s dig and the ref’s disregard for the board mean that Newcastle was mistreated – five things
Before contentious penalty call by referee Szymon Marciniak, Newcastle United was just minutes away from upsetting PSG in the Champions League. Here are five things we learnt from the 1-1 draw.
After PSG was awarded a contentious penalty at the last second to salvage a 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes, Newcastle United was denied a historic victory.
With a close-range finish midway through the first half, Alexander Isak gave Newcastle the lead after Gianluigi Donnarumma mishandled Miguel Almiron’s attempt. But in stoppage time, referee Szymon Marciniak gave PSG a penalty, and Kylian Mbappe scored to give his team a point.
Referee gets it so, so wrong
Newcastle should have been in safe hands when referee Szymon Marciniak was sent for a VAR check in the 96th minute. The Pole is one of the best in the business. The man who refereed last season’s Champions League final and took charge of the World Cup final less than a year ago, after all.
It is always a tell-tale sign when a referee goes to the monitor but, surely, this was going to be an exception. UEFA’s rules may be different – there is no way this would have been given in the Premier League – but that still can’t explain this unbelievable decision. The replays were clear: the ball had come off Tino Livramento’s chest then hit his elbow inside the box. It was not a penalty.
In their guidelines for this season, after all, UEFA’s football board recommended that the governing body ‘should clarify that no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body and, in particular, when the ball does not go towards the goal’. However, astonishingly, Marciniak pointed to the spot.
Spirited Newcastle denied famous win
PSG had scored in each of their previous 48 group stage games, which was a Champions League record. The Ligue 1 leaders had only lost one of their last 35 home matches in the competition at the Parc des Princes. Luis Enrique’s side were bidding to reach the last 16 for the 12th year running. That was the scale of the challenge facing a Newcastle side missing 14 senior players.
However, Newcastle did not travel in fear. Far from it. As Kieran Trippier said before the game: “We have got to stick to our principles. Our philosophy is to go after Paris.”
Having taken the lead, Newcastle also disrupted PSG’s rhythm and defended manfully after weathering an early storm, whether it was Lewis Miley blocking Lee Kang-in’s shot or Fabian Schar getting in the way of Ousmane Dembele’s goalbound effort in first-half stoppage time.
On the occasions PSG breached Newcastle’s stubborn shape after the break, Nick Pope was there to keep his side in front and rushed out off his line to thwart Dembele after the rapid forward was played in with 55 minutes on the clock. If that was an important intervention, well, Pope’s point-blank save from substitute Bradley Barcola midway through the second half was nothing short of extraordinary.
It should have been a game-winning save – only for PSG to be given a stoppage time gift. PSG may have had 72% possession, 31 shots and three times as many corners than Newcastle – Mbappe hissed ‘we knew it was their game to have nothing’ – but the visitors did not deserve this.
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