Paris Saint-Germain were disposed of with relative ease on Wednesday night.
Newcastle United recorded an emphatic 4-1 win over PSG in the Champions League at St James’ Park, sending supporters into dreamland.
Goals from Miguel Almiron, Dan Burn, Sean Longstaff and Fabian Schar took Eddie Howe’s side top of Group F ahead of the meeting with Borussia Dortmund later this month.
It was a fantastic night for all involved with the club and, frankly, while PSG grew into it after Lucas Hernandez’s header, they never really looked like completely overturning the scoreline.
Manager Luis Enrique, however, had other ideas.
Luis Enrique says Newcastle did not deserve to win 4-1
Although the Spaniard conceded that Newcastle deserved to win the game, the former Barcelona and Spain coach does not believe the scoreline adequately reflected what happened on the night.
“I don’t think the score reflects the game. But Newcastle definitely deserved to win,” he said (via The Chronicle’s Aaron Stokes).
Difficult to see what Enrique means
Newcastle looked very dangerous with pretty much every attack on the night. Indeed, Schar had gone close in the first-half after Kieran Trippier’s clever corner, so its not as if Howe’s side simply scored with every shot they had.
In fact, as per WhoScored data, they had a total of 12 attempts on goal and scored only 33% of those.
PSG might have caused issues early on but it’s hard to see what Enrique is getting at. They looked lethargic at best for most of the contest and, aside from Nick Pope’s save from Ousmane Dembele in the second-half not long after their goal, rarely truly threatened.
Howe’s team were clinical when they had to be. They might not have pinned PSG back for the whole game but they really didn’t need to.
Enrique’s comments don’t make a huge amount of sense.
Receive a digest of our best Newcastle content each week direct to your mailbox
