UEFA and New Castle controversial goal

Newcastle United were denied a famous win against Paris Saint-Germain as a controversial last-gasp penalty from Kylian Mbappe earned the French champions a point on Tuesday night.

Eddie Howe’s side were on the brink of completing a memorable double over Les Parisiens, having thrashed them 4-1 at St James’ Park earlier in the group stages.

Alexander Isak’s goal looked as if it would be enough to send the Toon second in the group ahead of the final matchday, until VAR reared its ugly head once again.

With 96 minutes on the clock, Ousmane Dembele’s cross was deflected onto Tino Livramento’s arm after hitting his chest.

UEFA rules clarify that this is not handball, but VAR Tomasz Kwiatkowski and referee Szymon Marciniak disagreed.

Mbappe stepped up and beat Nick Pope to equalise, leaving Newcastle third in the group with AC Milan to play at St James’ Park next month.

Mbappe came closest to opening the scoring after a free-flowing move down the right saw him meet Achraf Hakimi’s cross, but Nick Pope denied his flick from close range.

On 24 minutes, Newcastle gave their travelling fans the moment they had been dreaming about.

Tino Livramento’s mazy run to the edge of the box gave Miguel Almiron the space to shoot, and the Paraguayan’s shot was parried tamely into the path of Isak by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The Swedish forward made no mistake, smashing high into the net on the rebound.

From that point, PSG had all of the ball and all of the chances, but it seemed as if they wouldn’t find a way past Pope.

The shot-stopper, who was harshly omitted from the England squad during the international break, showed his credentials to deny Dembele and Bradley Barcola from close range.

The latter missed a golden chance at the back stick before Mbappe sent another shot wide late on after Pope blocked his first effort.

But the world-class forward made no mistake with his penalty, firing straight down the middle to earn PSG a late draw which puts their destiny in their own hands in this Champions League group of death.

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