The U19s fall to defeat against Newcastle

This afternoon, Les Rouge et Bleu welcomed Newcastle United to the Stade Georges Lefèvre in a crunch tie on their quest to make it through to the knockout stage of the UEFA Youth League. The capital club, who were sitting in third place and one point behind Borussia Dortmund in Group F at kick-off, were duty-bound to get a positive result against The Magpies, who themselves were rock bottom of the group and still looking for their first win in the competition.

THE STARTING xi

Mouquet – Kissanga (Khafi, 80'), Diaby, Adonis – Fanne Drame, Mayulu, Mbappé, Nhaga (Cordier, 79') – Mbaye (Mendy, 90'), Bensoula (Michut, 79'), Sangaré (Camara, 90').

THE story OF THE GAME

Setting his side up in his habitual 3-4-3 formation, Zoumana Camara decided to make just one change to the starting XI that fell to a narrow 3-2 defeat away to AC Milan, as the team's usual captain, Yoram Zague, was on duty with France's U17s – who today reached the final of the FIFA U-17 World Cup – meaning that 15-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye came in to replace him. Ben Dawson's outfit, meanwhile, who were languishing at the bottom of Group F with just one point to show for themselves at kick-off thanks to a 2-2 draw with Dortmund three weeks ago, lined up in a 5-4-1 formation for the first time in the current UYL campaign.

Although Paris's youngsters seemed to be in control of the match for the opening exchanges, it was Newcastle who managed to open the scoring through the unmarked Scott Bailey following a one-touch, counter-attacking move (1-0, 11'). The capital club wouldn't let themselves get downhearted, though, and instead further stepped up their efforts to find a way through. Having come out second-best in a one-on-one with Adrian Janusz, Mahamadou Sangaré then thought that he was about to level things up with a lovely backheel, but The Magpies' keeper proved to be unbeatable early on, pulling off a splendid double save.

As the minutes ticked by, the game's intensity rose, and Zoumana Camara's boys seemed to be getting closer and closer to finding an equaliser. Shortly before the end of the first half, Mbaye managed to get a shot away, but it turned out to be too tame to trouble Janusz, who was able to make another save. At the break, then, Les Parisiens were behind on the scoreboard.

After the restart, Zoumana Camara's side suffered another setback when captain Senny Mayulu was given a second yellow card to bring a premature end to his game, meaning that Les Rouge et Bleu were about to play with ten men for 42 minutes plus injury time, but the capital club remained as committed as ever to playing attacking football, as demonstrated by Mbaye, who, after being played in by Kamil Bensoula once again, could only hit the ball straight at Janusz.

Les Parisiens eventually got their reward late on as, after some superb work by Thomas Cordier, who had come off the bench a few minutes earlier, Sangaré equalised with a superb, left-footed volley that nestled in the top corner of The Magpies' net (1-1, 85'). Zoumana Camara's players must have thought that they had done the hard part after drawing level so late in the game, but Newcastle would retake the lead in the final few seconds of normal time, when a Johnny Emerson shot from outside the box was deflected by Erwan Adonis, thereby wrongfooting Mouquet (1-2, 89'). Just as they did against Milan, Les Titis again suffered a cruel defeat after conceding in the dying moments of the match.

THE NEXT GAME

In their final game of the UEFA Youth League group stage, Zoumana Camara's side will travel to Dortmund as they look to book their place in the last 16. The capital club remain third in the group, one point behind the German side – who were comfortably beaten 4-1 away to Milan this afternoon – and will have no choice but to win in order to keep their hopes of making it through to the competition's knockout stage alive.