Key events
Milan cavort, while Eddie Howe looks suitably grim-faced. Newcastle were in the box seat for the best part of an hour, but news of Dortmund’s opening goal, followed by PSG’s quick-fire equaliser, seemed to spook everyone inside St James’ Park and give Milan a sense of opportunity. The Rossoneri grabbed it with both hands. Perhaps it would have been different had Mike Maignan not spectacularly tipped Bruno Guimarães’s shot onto the bar, but Milan were the better side in the second half and were good value for their comeback victory in the end. Heartbreak for the Toon, though you can be sure there won’t be another 20-year wait before they take their next pop at the Champions League.
There’s a brief stramash as the whistle goes. A few heads gone. Schar is booked. It all calms down quickly enough. Meanwhile it’s also all over in Dortmund, where the hosts did Newcastle a favour by holding PSG to a draw … but Eddie Howe’s side couldn’t take advantage. Dortmund and PSG make it to the knockouts, while Milan drop into the Europa League. Newcastle put their passports away for the season.
FULL TIME: Newcastle 1-2 Milan
The whistle goes and Newcastle crash out of Europe altogether.
90 min +4: Another Milan counter, three on one this time. Jovic rolls the ball to Tomori on the right. Tomori creams a shot across Dubravka … and off the base of the left-hand post! Another big chance to wrap it up missed.
90 min +3: … Milan clear and counter! Hernandez and Chukwueze are two on one, and there’s no keeper! Hernandez should pass to Chukwueze, but rolls goalwards from 50 yards himself. It’s a weak effort and missing to the right.
90 min +2: Guimarães sends Joelinton into space down the left with a glorious crossfield pass. Joelinton feeds Burn on the overlap. Burn drives into the box for a corner. Up comes Dúbravka and …
90 min +1: The ball’s in Maignan’s hands. He’s not rushing to bowl it out.
90 min: Florenzi is booked for a cynical tug on Almiron. There will be four minutes. Can Newcastle find an equaliser that’d earn them the consolation prize of a spot in the Europa League?
89 min: Guimarães dribbles hard down the right but runs out of space. Goal kick. He cocks his head back in disappointment, before trudging back upfield. Newcastle haven’t been the same since hearing of that deflating PSG equaliser.
88 min: The 17-year-old Davide Bartesaghi comes on for his Champions League debut. He replaces Leao. What a time to throw on a teenage debutant!
87 min: Milan nearly get a third. Leao barrels down the left. He slips infield for Jovic, who aims a first-time drive towards the bottom right. Burn does exceptionally well to block.
86 min: Unless Newcastle can find a goal, they won’t be playing European football in the new year.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-2 Milan (Chukwueze 84)
All of the subs combine to give Milan the lead! Jović bursts down the middle. He lays off to Okafor, who rolls Chukwueze in down the inside-right channel. With his first touch, Chukwueze whips a shot across Dubravka and in! Heartbreak for Newcastle.
83 min: Milan make a double change, sending on Okafor and Chukwueze for Giroud and Musah.
82 min: A free kick for Milan now. Florenzi curls it in from the left and earns a corner. Florenzi and Reijnders take it quickly and play it short, and Newcastle are very lucky that the latter takes a poor touch as he strides into the box and can’t get a good shot away.
81 min: Musah almost rugby tackles an in-flight Isak. He’s booked. A free kick in a central position, 30 yards out. Newcastle waste it. A gentle float into the box that’s easy for Maignan to pluck from the sky.
79 min: Leao is this close to putting an end to Newcastle’s dream! He tears clear down the inside left, reaches the box, gives Dubravka the eyes … and whistles a daisycutter towards the bottom left, only to watch in disbelief as it cannons off the base of the post and away!
77 min: Livramento fizzes a cross through the Milan box from the right. Wilson can’t connect. Then Jović is booked for hauling back Schar. This is getting gloriously scrappy.
76 min: Calabria is fine to continue. Meanwhile in Dortmund, Kylian Mbappé has had a goal disallowed. Tense nervous headache?
75 min: Joelinton has been booked for swinging a hand in the vague environs of an opponent’s grid. Meanwhile Schar slips and clatters into Calabria, and the Milan captain felt that. On comes the trainer.
74 min: The first-half possession stats were 59-41 in Newcastle’s favour. Milan have a 58-42 advantage in this second period.
72 min: Milan make a double change. Loftus-Cheek and Pulisic make way for Pobega and Jović.
71 min: Miley makes way for Longstaff.
70 min: Guimarães and Almiron combine crisply down the inside-right channel but can’t find the killer final ball. Both teams need a win, and so this game has opened up like a flower.
69 min: Isak probes down the left. He cuts back for Guimarães, who takes a touch before unleashing a fierce rising drive towards the top right. Maignan turns the ball onto the crossbar and away. So close to turning the tie back in Newcastle’s favour!
67 min: Isak cuts in from the left and tries to make something happen. He aims a curler towards the top left. It’s always heading over the bar … though it took a deflection. However there’s to be no corner. Isak is livid.
66 min: Leao comes again down the left and wins a corner. It’s sent in, and Hernández goes over under very light pressure from behind by Guimarães. He wants a spot kick but the referee’s not having a bar of it. Newcastle are suddenly jittery, though, and Milan can sense a chance to take control.
64 min: Leao sashays into the Newcastle box from the left. Schar slides in recklessly. Leao stays honest and continues to dribble towards the byline before eventually losing control. Had the Milan winger gone to ground over Schar’s leg, the referee would surely have awarded a penalty. Lucky Schar.
63 min: Newcastle need another goal now, and so Eddie Howe sends on Isak for Wilson. Trippier meanwhile makes way for Burn; Livramento moves from left to right-back.
62 min: … but it’s not yet all over. Miley crosses deep from the right and Maignan flaps. Wilson tries to poke home with an extended leg but can only guide the ball wide left.
61 min: It’s suddenly all gone wrong for Newcastle. What a very weird ten minutes.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-1 Milan (Pulisic 59)
Milan feed off the sudden anxiety in St James’ Park. Reijnders wins a corner down the right. Newcastle only half clear it. Musah feeds Leao down the left. He cuts back. Tomori swings a peg on the penalty spot. He doesn’t connect properly, but the ball squirts to Giroud, just to the left of goal. He rolls across to Pulisic, who sweeps home from six yards. How quickly everything changes.
57 min: That PSG equaliser has muted the St James’ roar somewhat. Of course Newcastle are still in the box seat.
56 min: The corner’s played short, then pulled back for Almiron … who takes a fresh-air swipe from 12 yards. Nicely worked, shame about the finish.
55 min: Warren Zaire Emery has levelled things up for PSG in Dortmund. It’s going to be a long second half. Meanwhile in the north-east of England, Gordon skedaddles down the left flank and earns a corner. Newcastle load the Milan box.
54 min: Trippier falls awkwardly and looks to have hurt his hip. Play stops awhile. The bedlam in the stands does not.
53 min: … so if Newcastle hold onto their lead, PSG will now have to score twice to deny them second spot.
52 min: Wilson has a whack from distance. Straight at Maignan. But St James’ Park erupts anyway, because Karim Adeyemi has given Borussia Dortmund the lead against PSG!
51 min: Gordon takes a whack from the right-hand side of the Milan D. Falling backwards, he hoicks over. Maignan had it covered.
50 min: Leao tries to get something going for Milan with a probe down the left. But when he reaches the box there’s nobody to find in the middle and the move breaks down.
48 min: Newcastle are first to everything right now. Reijnders hovers around, waiting to take receipt of a simple pass. Joelinton nips in to steal and set Gordon off down the left. Nothing comes of the attack, but there’s the reason Newcastle are leading this game. They simply seem to want it more. Milan are strangely passive.
46 min: Joelinton battles for a long ball on the edge of the Milan D. He can’t quite control, but it breaks to Wilson, who shapes a shot towards goal. An attempt to curl towards the top left flies straight into Maignan’s belly. The keeper a lot calmer than he was just before the break.
Newcastle get the second half underway. No changes.
Mancunian-infused half-time entertainment. David Hytner picks the bones of Manchester United’s dismal campaign …
… while Jamie Jackson reports on Manchester City’s earlier win in Belgrade, where yet another star from the City academy was born.
HALF TIME: Newcastle 1-0 Milan
Joelinton’s screamer means that, as things stand, Newcastle will qualify for the knockout stage. It’s goalless at the break in Dortmund.
45 min +1: At the corner, Maignan is flattened by Joelinton. The whistle goes for a free kick, but the keeper’s not happy and asks the referee to hand out coloured-carded-based punishment. The ref does, but to Maignan for his ludicrous over-reaction.
45 min: Wilson harries and hassles and wins the ball on the halfway line. He barrels down the left but can’t get a shot away. The play’s switched to the left, where Trippier and Almiron combine to win a corner. Before it can be taken, Musah and Wilson are rollocked twice by the referee for wrestling. There will be two added minutes.
43 min: Musah plays a ball down the inside-left channel to … nobody. Milan have been pretty clueless in attack tonight.
42 min: Trippier sends the resulting free kick into the box from the right. Joelinton heads the ball straight up into the air. Nobody’s perfect, and he’s got plenty of credit in the bank this evening.
41 min: Miley wins a corner down the right. Trippier takes. Giroud heads clear. Leao tries to get ahead of Almiron to start a counter, and plants the point of his elbow on the Newcastle player’s lug. Ooyah oof. That’ll smart. Leao goes into the book.
39 min: Miley takes a silky touch down the right and draws a foul from Musah. Miley is 17. A free kick to the side of the box. Danger for Milan … but it comes to nothing. Milan break upfield through Leao, but he can’t beat Livramento in a footrace. Livramento is 21. The future’s bright for Newcastle.
37 min: As things stand, the Toon are going through.
35 min: Milan attempt to hit back immediately by humping a free kick into the mixer. There’s a brief game of head tennis. Miley puts a stop to it by clearing Newcastle’s lines. This place is bouncing.