Key events
It’s wild at St James’ and rightly so – Newcastle were brilliant tonight and there’s every sense they’re going to get better, quickly. I can’t ignore the provenance of all this, but I also can’t ignore the brilliantly aggressive way in which they play nor how well-drilled they are.
Results
Group E
Celtic 1-2 Lazio
**
Group F
Borussia Dortmund 0-0 AC Milan
Newcastle United 4-1 PSG
**
Group G
Crvena zvezda 2-2 Young Boys
Leipzig 1-3 Man City
**
Group H
Porto 0-1 Barcelona
RED CARD FOR GAVI!
He pulls someone back on halfway and is shown a second yellow. I’m not sure why he did that.
WHAT A GOAL! Newcastle 4-1 PSG (Schar 90+1)
Schar seizes a loose ball, plays a one-two off Murphy and, from 20 yards on the slide, somehow powercurls a gloooorious finish high past Donnarumma at the near post! What a night at St James’!
GOAL! Crvena Zvezda 2-2 Young Boys (Bukari 88)
I only see the celebration here, and it’s a belter!
GOAL! Celtic 1-2 Lazio (Pedro 90+5)
Still got it! Guendouzi crosses from the right and Big Pedro Rodriguez is there at the back post, to drift a fine header into the net! Mayhem in the away section!
GOAL! Leipzig 1-3 Man City (Doku 90+2)
With Leipzig gambling in search of an equaliser, Haaland catches a clearance and turns it onto Alvarez, who plays in the electric Doku. He screeches goalwards, opens his body, and slides his first Champions League goal into the far corner.
Into the last minute in Leipzig; in Newcastle there are still five to go, on account of the seven added on at the end of the first half. Celtic and Lazio, meanwhile, have played two of six additional minutes.
“I’m sat in a restaurant in Porto, having a very nice dinner with European marine scientists,” admits Bob O’Hara. “Did Porto miss the penalty or are we being too loud and drowned out the cheer?”
Porto had their penalty confiscated from them by VAR.
GOAL! Leipzig 1-2 Man City (Alvarez 84)
Doku, on as sub, jinks down the left, nips inside and lays back to Alvarez, who digs out from under his feet and scoops a looping curler from the edge of the box, left-hand side, and into the top-right corner! That is an absolutely rrridiculous goal.
NO PENALTY TO PORTO!
Eustáquio is adjudged to have controlled with the top of his arm. Harsh, I’d say.
NO GOAL! Celtic 1-1 Lazio
I’m not sure Palma needed Maeda’s touch, and I’m afraid iot’s robbed him of the moment of his life so far.
GOAL CHECK AT PARKHEAD
Was Palma offside when Maeda flicked to him? I think he was, you know…
GOAL! Celtic 2-1 Lazio (Palma 81)
A ball over the top from the right, Maeda flicks it around the corner, and Palam thrashes a drag inside the near post! Mayhem in Paradise!
PENALTY TO PORTO!
A long ball may have hit Eustáquio’s arm, it definitely hit Cancelo’s, and the ref points to the spot.
Jamie Bynoe-Gittens came on for Dortmund a few minutes ago and he’s made an immediate difference. I’ve been impressed with him almost every time I’ve seen him, as it goes, and given how impotent his side look at the moment, i doubt he’s far from a regular start.
Hakimi slings a great long pass down the middle and Dembele is in! But Lascelles does really well to pursue, leaning into him as he shoots and avoiding censure though he doesn’t get the ball.
Newcastle are still pressing Paris deep inside their own half. It’s impossible for me not to compare how I perceive the experience of facing them with that of facing Manchester United.
“My bugbear with VAR,” says Daniel Barnett, “is that it represents an unrealistic and infantile yearning for an objective truth that simply doesn’t exist. Why can’t we just live with the fact that referees (like judges, teachers, and even — whisper it — parents) make subjective interpretations with almost every decision, and are not infallible? Deal with it, snowflakes! It’s like nobody’s read Kuhn’s “Scientific Revolutions”, or post-modernism never happened.
And as you say, this pathetic desire for ‘truth’ has come at the cost of sacrificing the elation of the goalscoring moment, and has just undermined refs’ authority further. Bah, humbug!”
Agree with all of this. I do think the laws need clarifying, but ultimately I don’t much care if refs get stuff wrong
Leipzig are defending their box well, and they’re having to. Foden has just had a dangerous cross turned away, after which leipzig sned on Werner and Sesko.
At Paradise, Lazio are putting Celtic under. I don’t massively fancy the home defence to see it out, but I’d not be shocked if Kyogo and Maeda found a counter.
GOAL! Crvena zvezda 1-2 Young Boys (Itten pen 61)
He slots down the middle as the keeper dives right.
In Leipzig, City are coming. First, Foden hits the far angle with a vicious swipe from a free-kick outside the box, right-hand side, then Haaland sends a shot too close to the keeper.
He was not, it’s a goal! Can Paris build on that?
GOAL! Newcastle United 3-1 PSG (Hernandez 57)
A ball over the top from Zaire-Emery and Hernandez heads in a livener … but was he offside?
“VAR casts too long a shadow, on-field and off-field,” reckons Rob Murray. “I’d love it if a variation could be trialled in which it is only used to adjudicate on penalty appeals and we live with offside errors and card kerfuffles. The ref watch-thingy to check goals stays too.”
I’m happy with semi-automated offside, i just want instant decisions and better drafted laws.
Back in Leipzig, Haaland has just narrowly failed to get on the end of a cross, on the stretch.
GOAL! Newcastle United 3-0 PSG (Longstaff 50)
Another Geordie, another goal! Trippier, out o the line, slips Longstaff in down the right of the box, and he hammers a low shot that catches Donnarumma out, hit hard about his ankles. This is an absolute paggaing!
The power and strength Newcastle have is quite something. Every team that plays them knows playing them is going to hurt, every one of their players putting it in in every game. That’s a lot easier said than done.
GOAL! Crvena zvezda 1-1 Young Boys (Ugrinic 48)
Amenda, on as sub, slides a ball in behind and Ugrinic lifts a lovely finish over the diving keeper.
GOAL! Leipzig 1-1 Man City (Openda 48)
This is so well taken! City give it away in midfield and Poulsen slides him in with a terrific pass. But there’s still loads to do and he runs down the inside-right channel, somehow wears a buffeting from Akanji like it’s nothing, which it isn’t, and slots home!
We’re also away again in Leipzig, but they played seven minutes added time at St James’ so they’re not back out there yet.
“Lascelles cam,” begins Mark Hooper. “Zero shots on goal from PSG first half, Lascelles faring pretty well so far.”
Yup, fair enough – and he won a big header for the second goal too.
We’re back under way at Parkhead.
“Sometimes I wish we could place a moratorium on all complaints about refereeing and/or VAR,” says Matt Burtz. “Yes, wrong decisions are made. Yes, a game of football has fine margins. Yes, wrong decisions can often decide important games. I don’t have a problem with VAR necessarily, but the constant whining about missed or wrong calls is often more annoying than said calls themselves. (And I don’t think Jürgen Klopp deserves any brownie points for being diplomatic about it either, though asking for a replay seems a bit dramatic.)“
I have a problem with VAR partly because I also don’t like ref-chat. I don’t care if refs make mistakes, so I’d not have compromised the goalscoring moment to try and improve a system i thought was fine already. No one fell in love with football because of how well its decision-making system works.
What a half for Newcastle. If they can hang on, they’ll be in a very strong position in the group and I can’t say I’m surprised to see how well they’ve played. In 1999-00, Leeds were a problem because teams weren’t ready for their blend of quality and physicality; Newcastle aren’t dissimilar to them.
Right, I’m off to put my daughter to bed; I’ll be back with you in a few for the second halves – or should that be seconds half.
Half-time scores
Group E
Celtic 1-1 Lazio
**
Group F
Borussia Dortmund 0-0 AC Milan
Newcastle United 2-0 PSG
**
Group G
Crvena zvezda 1-0 Young Boys
Leipzig 0-1 Man City
**
Group H
Porto 0-1 Barcelona
GOAL! Porto 0-1 Barcelona (Torres 45+1)
Porto are devod! They give it away in midfield, Gundogan slides in Ferran, his old man City mucker, and the finish is expert, slid past the keeper before he can set.
GOAL1 Newcastle United 2-0 PSG (Burn 42)
DAN BURN HAS SCORED FOR NEWCASTLE IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE! The two checks – one for handball when Lascelles won the initial header – and one for offside, when Bruno picked up possession – went in their favour, and this is another wonderful performance from Eddie Howe’s team!
A few minutes ago, Alexander Isak, whose nickname is, I trust, Chris, was down having his heed bandaged. But he seems fine now, and his team are all over it! Trippier sticks a free-kick in the box, Donnarumma makes a save from Bruno who gets the ball back off Tonali, flights a cross to the back post, Burn leaps like a lanky salmon folding over his man to punish home a header … and there’s a check – for various things, I think. But if it’s a goal, what a moment it’ll be for the Burn family, Newcastle fans all. Goodness me, this is a long wait.
GOAL! Crvena zvezda 1-0 Young Boys (Ndiaye 35)
Bukari nips outside his man, shoots, and Ndiaye is there to turn the errant effort in at the back post.
In Porto, Robert Lewandowski has gone off injured, replaced by Ferran Torres. More generally, I think Barca are on the way back under Xavi – Balde, Pedri and Gavi are very serious players – but are miles off where they want to be.
“Anthony Taylor bringing the PL refereeing-quality to Porto tonight,” writes Peter Littley. “Clear penalty to Porto not called, shirt-pull followed by full-body collision and no ball-contact. Forget VAR just get quality refs.”
I dunno – from where are quality refs got? I just think it’s a really difficult job, and VAR has made things worse. Before it refs were , I think, up at over 95% correct decisions so really, there wasn’t much needing fixing – certainly not enough to sacrifice the joy of properly celebrating a goal.
GOAL! Celtic 1-1 Lazio (Vecino 29)
A corner drops inside the Celtic box, bounces up, and Lazio win the second ball allowing Vecino to nod in despite Hart’s despairing hand clawing the ball away from behind the line.
GOAL! Leipzig 0-1 Manchester City (Foden 25)
Bernardo finds Lewis with a terrific pass in behind and Lewis, who started the move, cuts back for Foden, arriving onto the ball to control a fine finish into the ground. He’s gathering momentum again isn’t he?
Ach! Newcastle have just done Paris with the Anderton/Sheringham corner, Schar turning his shot around the post.
“He’s been most impressive for Leipzig,” returns Ingo Herzke, this time on Simons. “Six games, three goals, five assists. Fast legs, fast thinking, always knows where everyone is moving. He’s going places, I’d say.”
Miguel Almiron, though. I knew he was better than we’d seen, but I can’t say I thought the MLS version of him would turn up in Newcastle – and yet here we are. Credit to Eddie Howe in that aspect – players are improving under him. I imagine he’s got a captive market – those at Newcastle before the takeover now want to all they can to stay there, and those he’s signed owe him for that.
GOAL! Newcastle United 1-0 PSG (Almiron 17)
Marquinho tries a chip out of defence, someone – Guimaraes I think – intercepts via header, and when Donnarumma saves Isak’s shot, Almiron screeches onto the scene to open body and pass a fine finish into the far side-netting! st James’ explodes!
Lewis and Foden come close for City, Lewis dragging back beautifully before having his shot blocked and Foden picking up the loose ball to drill wide … but at the far post, Bernardo really out to have turned in.
