PSG 1-1 Newcastle: Toon denied a famous win by controversial injury-time penalty as Kylian Mbappe slots home to cancel out Alexander Isak’s early strike and leave French side in pole position

In European football some of the most important steps are the small ones and despite how it feels this morning Newcastle took another one on a cold but frantic night in Paris.

Eddie Howe and his players will feel only the pain and the disappointment in the wake of this epic contest. They will wonder how they got so close to yet another momentous Champions League win over PSG and yet couldn’t get over the line. They will ask whether a ball that strikes a hand after first striking a player on the chest really should be called an infringement. And they are right to wonder about all that and much more.

But the truth is that this was another night of progress for Howe and Newcastle. This was another night of growth, another occasion to further deepen that growing sense that they actually belong on this stage. That feeling can take a while to grow and take root – just ask Manchester City – so from that point of view Newcastle are ahead of the curve.

They came to France all but dead and buried in Group F. Their 4-1 dismantling of PSG at St James Park back in October was a memory. A nice memory but one rendered less significant after defeats home and away to Borussia Dortmund.

Newcastle also arrived here desperately short of bodies. Howe had one kid, 17-year-old Lewis Miley in his team, and two more on his bench where he had also placed two goalkeepers. It was the only way he could fill it.

Kylian Mbappe’s calmly dispatched effort ensured the hosts snatch a point that keeps their Champions League hopes in their own hands

Debate will rage over whether Tino Livramento should have been penalised for a handball after it ricocheted off his chest first

So the odds were stacked high here. PSG are as flawed as ever. The more we see them play the more we wonder if they will ever amount to more than bullies in their own domestic league. They don’t lose at home very often, though, and that it took a 95th minute penalty call- to save them said everything for Newcastle’s courage, commitment and cussedness.

Under the current handball law (it will probably change again next season) this was probably a penalty. Ousmane Dembele – who tends to veer from looking like the best player in the world to the worst at least twelve times in a game – crossed from the right and ball struck Tino Livramento’s arm after first hitting him on the body.

 Ethically it didn’t feel like a penalty but that doesn’t seem to matter these days. So the VAR team were perhaps right to intervene and once Kylian Mbappe had his opportunity he was not likely to miss.

After that, it actually could have got worse. The header that Bradley Barcola planted over in the 98th minute could easily have gone in. So a draw for Newcastle was something to take, something to cling to. And on the balance of play it was undoubtedly the most just result.

PSG, lampooned by their own media and fans after that embarrassment on Tyneside, flew from the traps here. Dembele gives them pace. So does Mbappe. When they use it properly they can look formidable and Nick Pope had to save an Mbappe flick in the 9th minute while Fabian Ruiz snatched at another chance and put it over.

Eddie Howe’s side had repelled everything the French champions had thrown at them 

Alexander Isak had put the Magpies in front in the first half – their first away strike in this competition for 20 years

Nick Pope provided several key interventions to preserve Newcastle’s advantage in Paris

Newcastle’s tactics were clear and sensible. Their 4-3-3 quickly morphed in to 4-5-1 when they didn’t have the ball and that enabled them to block a number of PSG’s attacking channels and then use their own quick players to counter. 

From that point of view, Livramento, Anthony Gordon and Miguel Almiron were excellent and particularly prominent in a first half Newcastle grew in to. The Brazilian central player Joelinton was also terrific.

The English team should have scored in the 12th minute. Almiron robbed Achram Hakimi of the ball on the left and when he crossed to the near post, Aleksandar Isak should have done better than shoot over from only six or seven yards.

That felt like a big moment. It felt like Newcastle wouldn’t get many more chances of that quality and they didn’t. Twelve minutes later, though, they were presented with another and this time Isak did score.

Once again, direct running and pace was instrumental as Livramento drove hard across field and laid the ball off to Almiron. The Paraguayan took a touch inside and curled a shot to the far corner. Gianluigi Donnarumma really should have saved it easily. But somehow the Italian goalkeeper only palmed it weakly away and Isak rammed the ball in with as much surprise as glee.

The night now presented Luis Enrique’s PSG players with a character test and for a while they seemed like failing it. Mbappe was soon gesturing to his team-mates to calm down but six of them were eventually booked on the night and the majority of those were for moments of dissent or ill-discipline.

After a VAR review, referee Szymon Marciniak awarded the contentious penalty against Livramento

Mbappe placed the spot kick high to Pope’s left to put PSG in charge of their European fate

Newcastle may debate the penalty but they should not allow that to cloud their heroic display 

The threat from the home team endured, however, and the second half must have felt desperately long for the Newcastle players. PSG ended the night having had 35 shots to Newcastle’s five and some of them really should have gone in.

Dembele planted a clear chance straight at Fabian Schar just before half-time then Pope dashed out to block from Dembele early in the second period. That was a decent save but the one he made from substitute Barcola, low to his right in the 66th minute, was probably one of the best of his career. 

Barcola was close again three minutes later, hitting the side netting after being played clear down the left, while Dembele planted a sitter of his own wide of the same post soon after.

By the time the goal did come, Newcastle were actually looking more comfortable. PSG’s fire had largely been drawn. Howe may ask where the Polish referee got eight added minutes from. Newcastle hadn’t made a single substitution of their own.

Ultimately, though, Newcastle got what, deep down, they probably came for. Newcastle remain alive in the Champions League with a game to go and, in a group of death, there is much to cherish about that.