Local boys Dan Burn and Sean Longstaff score as Newcastle stun PSG
Newcastle ran riot at St James’ Park (Martin Rickett/PA)
Geordies Dan Burn and Sean Longstaff both scored to help Newcastle put Paris St Germain to the sword as Champions League football returned to Tyneside with a bang.
More than two decades since the Magpies last played in the competition, they rekindled memories of their first ever outing, a 3-2 victory over Barcelona in 1997, by thumping the French champions 4-1 in front of a crowd of 52,009 at a delirious St James’ Park.
Miguel Almiron set the ball rolling with the club’s first Champions League goal since Alan Shearer’s double at Inter Milan in March 2003, but it was local boys Burn and Longstaff who put the Group F fixture beyond Luis Enrique’s side before Fabian Schar smashed home a superb fourth to secure three points to go with the one with which they had returned from AC Milan a fortnight earlier.
Kylian Mbappe had a night to forget (Owen Humphreys/PA)
PSG, whose owners Qatar Sports Investments have poured so much money into an as yet unrequited quest for European glory, simply did not cope with the home side’s high press before the break and failed to utilise fully the inestimable talents of Kylian Mbappe and company even after Lucas Hernandez had given them a glimmer of hope.
The game kicked off amid a cacophony and the volume only rose as the industry of Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon caused problems for keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and defender Marquinhos early on.
However, it was the visitors who went agonisingly close to taking the lead with just five minutes gone when 17-year-old midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery broke from his own half and fed Mbappe, whose cross was volleyed inches wide by Ousmane Dembele with Nick Pope helpless.
Achraf Hakimi was
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