WHILE the Parisians were cast aside with ease, Newcastle were left reeling from a late sucker punch in East London.
On Wednesday, the Toon produced one of the greatest nights in their long, illustrious history with a truly special Champions League thumping of Paris Saint-Germain at St James’ Park.
Four days later, back in the Premier League, it was looking to be an unmemorable trip to the capital before Alexander Isak scored twice in five minutes to complete a nitty-gritty turnaround at West Ham.
But up stepped Mohammed Kudus in the 89th minute to deny the Geordies the perfect week – and it could have been a whole lot worse had Jarrod Bowen’s late effort crept in.
Against PSG, it was a magical night on Tyneside thanks to four scintillating goals.
Against the Hammers, it was anything but, and ultimately Newcastle paid the price.
They remain unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions, but this one is going to sting.
David Moyes will be left wondering how this one got away from his West Ham who are also on the up, having lost just twice all season to Manchester City and Liverpool.
Tomas Soucek gave the hosts the perfect start in the eighth minute thanks to yet another stunning intervention from Lucas Paqueta.
But the brilliant Brazilian can only do so much, and West Ham faded as Newcastle’s light burned brighter as the match went on.
Newcastle certainly rode their luck in the first half. Paqueta’s Samba pal Bruno Guimaraes was lucky not to receive a quick-fire second yellow card for a clumsy counter-denying tackle.
Isak’s ruthlessness in front of goal looked to have decided it, and squandered a brilliant chance for a hat-trick only for the post to play the part of party-pooper.
The cost? Kudus slamming home his first Prem goal to send the London Stadium potty.
The biggest surprise pre-match came in Moyes’ team selection, including Michail Antonio despite the striker missing the Europa League trip to Freiburg with an abductor injury.
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It was a return that allowed newly recalled England international Bowen to shuffle over to his usual right-wing role, hoping to score his 100th professional goal in English football.
With Anthony Gordon suspended, Eddie Howe slotted Sandro Tonali into his midfield, in an otherwise unchanged line-up from their PSG-mauling.
West Ham began brightly, and Paqueta’s trickery instantly brought about the opener, his cute dink setting Emerson Palmieri into the box down the left.
His skewed, shinned touch fortuitously took the ball past an onrushing Nick Pope and a simple squared cross handed the unmarked Soucek his fourth goal in his last six games.
Paqueta really was running the show, making a mockery of a Newcastle side that had run Kylian Mbappe and co ragged.
Moyes has labelled him his little “maverick”, and Paqueta was living up to that name with bone-crunching tackles and a flea-like persistence to regain possession.
It would have been easy to put this sluggish Newcastle start down to fatigue, but that would be taking too much credit away from West Ham.
The visitors gradually made some chances of their own. Dan Burn came close with a header from a Kieran Trippier free-kick as half time approached.
After the break, it was another Trippier delivery that produced the equaliser in the 57th minute. Edson Alvarez’s header only fell into the path of Isak as he smashed home from close range.
Newcastle rumbled on. It was Trippier again with a first-time volleyed cross in the 62nd minute and Isak was there to tap into an empty net.
Had Isak found the net for his hat-trick in the 73rd minute having rounded Pope instead of smacking the post, the game would have been over.
Instead, West Ham hung on in there, and off the bench came Kudus with space just outside the box and a 20-yard volley that stung the net, as well as Toon hearts.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
