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 Mbappé 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 “galácticos” 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 Mbappé 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.
BARCELONA 1, FC PORTO 0
PORTO, Lisbon (AP) — Ferran Torres scored after replacing the injured Robert Lewandowski to help Barcelona win 1-0 at FC Porto on Wednesday, while teenager Lamine Yamal became the youngest starter in the history of the Champions League.
Lewandowski was replaced by Torres after he hurt his left ankle when tackled by defender David Carmo. The Poland striker tried to play on, stopping to have his ankle taped, but he was still limping and eventually came off in the 34th.
Torres capitalized on the first major mistake by Porto when Romário Baro weakly hit a pass toward his defence and then stood by while Ilkay Gündoğan raced past to pick up the ball and set up his forward to score the winner.
It was a tough loss for Porto after it generated several scoring chances in a second half that the hosts dominated at Estádio do Dragão.
“We said before the game that this match would go a long way to determining the order of the group, so we had to win it one way or another” Torre said. “Today we showed that we don’t have to have the ball to pull out a win.”
Barcelona finished with 10 men after Gavi Páez saw a second yellow card in stoppage time.
Barcelona’s Yamal became the youngest starter in the history of the Champions League at 16 years and 83 days. Yamal already had the record for the youngest player to play for Barcelona from last season. He became the youngest scorer in a European Championship qualifier when he debuted for Spain last month.
In the other Group H game, Danylo Sikan scored twice as Shakhtar Donetsk erased a two-goal deficit to beat Antwerp 3-2 in Belgium.
Barcelona leads the group with six points. Porto and Shakhtar have three each, while Antwerp has zero.
MANCHESTER CITY 3, LEIPZIG 1
LEIPZIG, Germany (AP) — Manchester City substitutes Julián Álvarez and Jérémy Doku combined for late goals to lead the title-holders to a 3-1 win at Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Álvarez fired the ball inside the far post from a standing position in the 84th minute after Doku picked him out on the edge of the penalty area, and the Argentina star returned the favour for Doku to seal the win on a counterattack in injury time.
City had dominated from the start with Phil Foden twice going close before he finally rewarded the visitors’ pressure with the opener in the 25th. Bernardo Silva played Rico Lewis through on the right and the 18-year-old pulled the ball back for Foden to shoot inside the right post with his weaker right foot.
Erling Haaland, who was quiet early on, drew a save from Janis Blaswich before the break, when Leipzig forward Loïs Openda saw his shot deflected out for a corner. It was the home team’s first and only effort of the first half.
But Openda scored with the next after he was played through on the right by Yussuf Poulsen. Openda held off Manuel Akanji’s robust challenge and fired in off the bottom of the left post in the 48th.
While City maintained its grip on possession, Leipzig’s threat on counterattacks was more pronounced as the home team displayed more ambition going forward.
Álvarez settled the result when he produced his brilliant finish to unleash a dipping shot beyond Blaswich and inside the far post, then set up Doku to seal it.
AC MILAN 0, BORUSSIA DORTMUND 0
DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — AC Milan again failed to spark its Champions League campaign into life as it was held 0-0 at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday for its second straight goalless draw in the competition.
Both teams had plenty of chances but were unable to finish them off in an entertaining match.
Milan, which reached last season’s semifinals, also drew 0-0 at home against Newcastle in their Champions League opener. And it could be left counting the cost of its profligacy in both matches.
Newcastle surprisingly beat Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 to move top of Group F, a point above its opponent. Milan was two points behind Newcastle and one above Dortmund.
ATLETICO MADRID 3, FEYENOORD 2
MADRID (AP) — Álvaro Morata scored two goals and Antoine Griezmann added another to lead Atletico Madrid to a 3-2 comeback win over Feyenoord in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Morata scored his first in the 13th minute to cancel out an own-goal by teammate Mario Hermoso.
David Hancko made it 2-1 for Feyenoord in the 34th before Griezmann leveled the score just before halftime.
Morata then put Atletico ahead two minutes into the second half when he stretched his leg out to turn in a lobbed pass by Nahuel Molina for the winner.
“We knew we had to suffer and pulled out a good win,” Morata said. “We never lost our confidence that things would go our way.”
Morata has scored seven goals for Atletico in eight games so far this season across all competitions to go with three goals with Spain during last month’s European Championship qualifiers.
RED STAR BELGRADE 2, YOUNG BOYS 2
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Osman Bukari is making a mark in this Champions League, creating one goal and scoring a late equalizer for Red Star Belgrade in a 2-2 draw against Young Boys on Wednesday.
The Ghana international caused a stir at the World Cup last year when he copied Cristiano Ronaldo’s “siuuu” goal celebration in a 3-2 loss to Portugal. Ronaldo, sitting on the bench, was not impressed and Bukari later explained he was not being disrespectful.
Bukari did impress two weeks ago when scoring in Red Star’s 3-1 loss at Manchester City and his speed and shooting was key again for the Serbian champion to secure a point Wednesday.
In the 88th minute, Bukari ran deep into the Young Boys penalty area to beat goalkeeper Anthony Racioppi at his near post with a rising shot.
Bukari had created the opening goal with a fast break in the 35th before his cross shot was touched in by forward Cherif Ndiaye. There was no initial celebration as the offside flag was raised and the goal was given only after a video review.
Tennis great Novak Djokovic was in Belgrade to see his favourite team deny the Swiss champion a first group-stage away victory.
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.