Ground number 367
(118th competitive European game in a row, home and away)
Date of First Visit: 28th November 2023
Parc Dez Princes, Paris, France
UEFA Champions League, Group stage F (game 5)
Attendance: 46,435 (2,000 gobsmacked Toon fans!)
"SIMPLE SYZMON!"
First of aall apologeez for dein this report back to front, but there’s a very good reason for dein this!
Yuh wud expect a referee who reffed the World Cup final to get a simple decision rest!
But ‘simple’ Syzmon Marciniak got it horribly wrang by awarding PSG a penalty for a non handball by Tino Livramento in the 8th minute of stoppage time, after changing his mind by wavin away penalty appeals from the PSG players in the first place! The PSG Ultra on the tannoy aalso got involved and shouted sommik in French, demandin a penalty! (Why woz that allowed?)
VAR had told the Polish ref to look at the pitch side monitor and he pointed to the spot after 3 minutes watching replays!
They of course scored to level the tie after NUFC had taken the lead in the 24th minute through Isak to send the 2,000 Toon faithful into raptures!----Livramento had passed the baall to Almiron az we attacked their goal at the far end from us and had a shot---the baall woz fumbled by their goalie and fell nicely to 'Alexander the Great' who said "thank you very much" az he fired the baall into the net!
Relentless pressure then ensued from PSG and they had several chances to equalise, but somehow we kept them oot and went in at half time one-nil to the good!
Again in the 2nd period they laid seige to wor goal and wor patched up side looked absolutleee knackered az the clock ticked doon!
The 4th official then put a ridiculous EIGHT MINUTES stoppage time board up? (there couldnt have been anymore than 4) and then THAT penalty decision which iz the most unjust in aall the European games I have ever seen, gannin way back to 1968!
The result meenz that we MUST beat AC Milan on home soil on the 13th of Decembaa and hope that Dortmund dee us a favour and eethaa draw or beat PSG in the last group stage game---az that sequence will put us into the knockoot stages in 2024!
Before the match we had watched wor U19s beat PSG U19s on the othaa side of Toon (Full match report on that to follow later) and then did a bit of 'sight seein' at the Arc de Treeeomff and the (Whey!)Aye-fill Towaa!---The liquid refreshments in a bar within site of the tower were the most expensive we've EVER SEEN on wor European travels! 9 pints between 3 of us came to a whoppin'-- 144 Euros! (approximately 130 quid in wor money!---(aboot £14 a pint!)---And here's the proof below!----And then it woz off to the main match!
After the match we were 'held back' for ower an hour and eventually got back to wor hotel on the Paris Metro at '1:00am bells'!--Aall the bars, includin' the hotel's were shut by this time, so we had nee choice but to gan for some 'shuteye' before travellin back on Wedinzday mornin! "ZZZZzzzz!"
We'd travelled here by Eurostar and did the same back----but not before havin a couple of gargels on the train from Paris and at King's Cross between trains! (see photos below when aa get time to dee them!)
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* Aall the 'Boozzaa crawl' photos to follow!
*9 visited Runnin total 64
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*Eurostar train bar (top) and King’s Cross boozer in between trains back
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