A day after French Ligue 1 side RC Lens shocked football giants Arsenal with a 2-1 victory at home, Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United restored pride for the English Premier League with a famous win over defending French champions Paris Saint-Germain at St. James’ Park yesterday. Eddie Howe’s Magpies dominated their second group match of this 2023/2024 UEFA Champions League Season by racing to a 3-0 lead against Kylian Mbappé’s mighty Paris side at home, before ending the game with a resounding 4-1 score line and going top of Group F that also consists of Italian Serie A’s AC Milan and German Bundesliga 1’s Borussia Dortmund.
15 Goals in Four Games for Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United
The Magpies may have suffered a three-game losing streak to Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion after their 5-1 opening weekend victory over Aston Villa in this year’s English Premier League, Eddie Howe’s side soon bounced back to win four straight in the league and remained unbeaten in their previous five matches in all competitions, including a record-breaking 8-0 win over newly promoted team Sheffield United. In light of this streak, Eddie Howe did not make much changes to the starting lineup that overcame Burnley last time around, with former Milan star boy Sandro Tonali replacing Elliot Anderson as the only alteration. PSG, on the other hand, had four replacements in their first 11.
Newcastle United got on the scoresheet as early as in the 17th minute, when their attacking players pressed and trapped the Paris backline. Captain Marquinhos’s clearance did not go as expected and was intercepted by Bruno Guimarães, before the Brazilian’s header found Alexander Isak. The Swedish striker was unable to score past Gianluigi Donnarumma but even a great goalkeeper like the latter cannot prevent Miguel Almirón’s follow-up shot. The home crowd went insane when their team drew first blood against the 11-time Ligue 1 winners.
Eddie Howe’s side got their second six minutes before the added time was given, courtesy of left-back Dan Burn’s effort. The goal came when set-piece specialist Kieran Trippier delivered a freekick into the dangerous zone, causing Donnarumma to repel the ball that came off his own defender, followed by another save against Guimarães. Bruno then delivered another cross to the six-yard box, this time it was met by Burn’s header. Despite the PSG shot stopper’s best effort to keep the ball out of the goal, Video Assistant Referee (VAR) indicated that it has already crossed the line, allowing Newcastle United to take a two-goal lead into the break.
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Newcastle Produced Their Biggest Win in the UEFA Champions League
Eddie Howe’s Magpies were not satisfied with their advantage and continued to knock Paris Saint-Germain’s door for more. Five minutes after play was resumed in the second 45 minutes, a poor buildup from the visitors saw the ball picked up by the home side, followed by a switch towards the right flank. The first goal scorer of the match Almirón sprinted towards the PSG goal, before squaring a pass for Trippier. The England international then set up compatriot Sean Longstaff inside the penalty box, with the midfielder lashing in a powerful shot into the back of the net.
Luis Enrique’s team pulled one back less than 360 seconds later via Lucas Hernández, but that was as far as PSG could get in goal last night. During the closing stage of this Matchday 2 fixture in the UEFA Champions League, Eddie Howe’s team completed PSG’s nightmare with an icing on the cake, thanks to Fabian Schär’s strike. The 31-year-old centre-back unleashed a long-ranged shot just outside the box while he fell and found the top right corner, making Donnarumma to pick the ball out of the net for the fourth time last night and giving Newcastle United all three points in this all-important UEFA Champions League encounter.
3 – Newcastle’s 4-1 win over PSG was the Mapgies’ biggest ever winning margin in a UEFA Champions League match, and heaviest group stage defeat for the French club in the competition since a 0-3 loss to Chelsea in September 2004. Remarkable. pic.twitter.com/FNNgMIfzPH
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 4, 2023
Eddie Howe After the Famous Win Over PSG: “Amazing Night.”
The win was Newcastle United’s biggest ever in the UEFA Champions League as well as Paris Saint-Germain’s worst group stage defeat since their 3-0 loss versus Chelsea almost two decades ago. The winning manager Eddie Howe was all smiles during the post-match conference but remained grounded over the win. The 45-year-old said: “Going from the difficult moment we were in to now, it’s a great lesson for us not to get ahead of ourselves. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but we want to keep going and we take nothing for granted. Amazing night, but we’ve got to continue to work hard from here.
“It goes without saying we hope that gives us that belief that we need to be successful in this competition. Against Milan in our first game, there was an element of us not quite hitting the levels that we expected of ourselves. But I think it’s only by doing that you can truly prove to yourself that you can do it consistently, and I think today will go a long way towards proving that.
“But as I said, there are so many difficult games to come in this competition. It’s a small step forward, but there’s still a long, long way to go. The next game in this competition will be hugely important, but that goes to the back of our minds now as we focus back on to the Premier League and West Ham.”
What Are Next for Newcastle United and PSG?
Eddie Howe’s side and Luis Enrique’s team will play their next group match of the UEFA Champions League against Dortmund and Milan at the end of October respectively. But before Matchday 3 of the competition can take place, both European club football outfits will attend to two league games; West Ham United and Crystal Palace for the Magpies while PSG will face Rennes and Strasbourg. Be sure to catch all these games live via AsiaSport.com‘s incredible livestream channels without paying a single penny!
