Borussia Dortmund fulfilled their half of the agreement by keeping PSG from winning, but Newcastle United failed to deliver the necessary victory at St. James’ Park as AC Milan battled to win and steal a spot in the UEFA Europa League. Joelinton’s rocket gave Newcastle the lead early in the game, but as the match progressed, they became tired and gave up two goals in the second half.
On a thrilling sixth matchday in Group F, AC Milan defeated Newcastle United 2-1 at St. James’ Park thanks to a rapier dagger inserted by Samuel Chukwueze. Stefano Pioli’s team’s comeback victory was insufficient to advance as Paris Saint-Germain drew 1-1 at Borussia Dortmund to secure second place behind the Bundesliga giants due to their better head-to-head record against Milan, who were knocked out of the Europa League.
PSG would have been eliminated if they had drawn even with Newcastle rather than the Rossoneri, which seemed likely as Joelinton scored a wonderful goal from a feed from Lewis Miley in the 33rd minute and placed it in the top corner.
After excellent work by Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud, Pulisic scored from close range to cap off an evening of growing tension between Dortmund and PSG.
Even when replacement Alexander Isak threatened to swing the game when they returned to Newcastle’s favor and Mike Maignan made an incredible save to tip Bruno Guimaraes’ piledriver against the crossbar, it seemed as though Newcastle’s current injury issue had taken a toll on their efforts.
The hosts pushed men forward, and six minutes from time, replacements Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor set up Chukwueze for an elegant finish that went high into Martin Dubravka’s net. Chukwueze broke clear to strike the post.
The players at Newcastle are frustrated because, although Dortmund did them a favor, they might have prevailed if they were able to sweat out a win. Milan emerged as the more powerful team and took home the victory.
The cruel irony is that they won’t even have Europa League football to cheer them on come January 1st, but Howe and company can still feel proud of their efforts in the most difficult group and they will undoubtedly recover as long as the club keeps moving in the right direction according to his direction.
