Newcastle’s Howe unhappy with ‘poor decision’ for PSG penalty

Eddie Howe said he had to ‘control himself’ after Newcastle’s Champions League hopes suffered a major setback when Kylian Mbappe scored a controversial 98th-minute penalty to earn Paris a 1-1 draw Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes.

Referee Szymon Marciniak – the man who officiated the 2022 World Cup final – awarded a penalty following VAR intervention after the ball hit Newcastle defender Tino Livramento’s arm following the cross ‘Ousmane Dembélé.

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The ball had first hit Livramento’s chest before bouncing off his arm, but Marciniak awarded the penalty after reviewing the incident on the pitchside VAR monitor.

Howe called it a “bad decision” but said Newcastle still had to believe they could progress to the last 16.

“Yes, I do,” Howe responded when asked if he felt any sense of injustice about the decision. “In my opinion, this is not the right decision, but we fear the worst when it comes to the monitor.

“The speed and the ricochet, slowed down, are different. The ball hits Tino’s chest then his arm, but it is not an abnormal movement.

“It was a bad decision with so little time, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.

“I have to control myself, that’s my job. There’s no point in losing control of what you think and say.”

Newcastle can still qualify for the knockout stages if they beat AC Milan at St James’ Park on Matchday 6 and PSG fail to beat Group F leaders Borussia Dortmund.

And Howe says reality is one of the positives Newcastle can take from the bitterness of their failure in Paris.

“I feel sorry for the players who played so well in such difficult circumstances,” Howe said. “We will look at the positive of what the players gave, they were totally committed to what we wanted to do.

“There were some huge performances and we are still in the competition, so we should look at the positives and not the negatives,”

“It will take time for the emotions to turn into positive, but the players have been absolutely exceptional.”

PSG striker Mbappé admitted Luis Enrique’s side should have won the match after making 31 shots during the 90 minutes.

“I try to be at my best every night,” he told TNT Sports. “I think I could have done more for my team. I had a lot of chances and I didn’t score more goals.

“Too many chances. You watch a lot of games and in the Champions League you have to score when you have the chance.

“It’s difficult when you see the game. What happened is we had so many chances to win. In football you can be much better but you don’t win.