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Newcastle beats Mbappe and PSG 4-1 in Champions League in statement win for Saudi-owned club

Wed, Oct 4, 2023
Soccer News (AP)

NEWCASTLE, England (AP) - Two years after being bought by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Newcastle pulled off the biggest win of its new era by beating Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 on Wednesday in the English club's first Champions League home game since 2003.

The scorers on one of the great nights at St. James' Park were Miguel Almiron, Dan Burn, Sean Longstaff and Fabian Schär - players who are far from the "galacticos" many thought Newcastle might be signing under the richest owners in soccer.

Newcastle powered 3-0 ahead after 50 minutes as PSG struggled to hold back a team being swept along in a passionate and intense atmosphere created by the home fans.

Lucas Hernandez pulled a goal back in the 56th for PSG, for whom Mbappe was relatively quiet on the latest tough night for the French champions in their first season since the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar. Schär's stoppage-time goal added to the pain.

Fifth in the French league and facing a difficult task to qualify from a Champions League group also containing AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund, things aren't going according to plan for PSG and new coach Luis Enrique this season.

For Newcastle, though, it's the stuff of dreams. Last week, they were knocking out Manchester City from the English League Cup and seven days later they were winning in Europe's top competition against one of the favorites, with two boyhood fans - Burn and Longstaff - among the scorers.

Newcastle leads Group F on four points after its 0-0 draw at Milan in the opening round of games. PSG, yet to win the Champions League despite more than a decade of heavy investment by its Qatari ownership, opened with a 2-0 home win over Dortmund. Milan also drew 0-0 at Dortmund on Wednesday.

The visitors only had themselves to blame for the first goal they conceded in the 17th, with Brazil center back Marquinhos attempting to play the ball out from the back and only succeeding in giving it away to Bruno Guimaraes. The ball then fell to Alexander Isak, whose shot was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma and Almiron opened his body to convert the rebound.

Burn - a 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) defender who used to watch Newcastle from the Gallowgate end as a kid - doubled the lead in the 39th minute, heading in from Guimaraes' cross with Donnarumma unable to claw out the ball before it crossed the line. It was the subject of a VAR check for both handball and offside in build-up but the goal stood.

And when Longstaff ran onto Kieran Trippier's pass and drilled a low shot in off the elbow of Donnarumma, Newcastle was 3-0 up and home fans couldn't believe what they were seeing.

PSG's only response came six minutes later from Hernandez, who sprinted forward from left back and glanced in a header from Warren Zaïre-Emery's lofted pass over the defense.

Schär crowned an almost perfect night for Newcastle by winning a tackle then running forward to receive a pass and curl a shot into the corner from the edge of the area.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer