‘I don’t know’ – PSG chief breaks silence on defeat at Newcastle United with awkward ‘joke’

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has broken his silence on his club’s 4-1 Champions League defeat at Newcastle United last week.

Newcastle’s first home match in the Champions League in over 20 years saw them dismantle the Ligue 1 champions with goals from Miguel Almiron, Dan Burn, Sean Longstaff and Fabian Schar. Lucas Hernandez grabbed a consolation for PSG in the second half.

It’s been an indifferent start to the 2023-24 season by PSG’s standards as the club have won four out of their eight Ligue 1 games so far and suffered their heaviest ever Champions League group stage defeat at the hands of The Magpies.

Le Parisien reported that Al-Khelafi was asked about PSG’s loss at St James’ Park during the Qatar Grand Prix over the weekend.

The PSG president, who attended the match on Tyneside, gave an interesting response: “What game? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The comment was taken as a joke – but when pressed on the serious matter and PSG’s season so far, he added: “This summer, the club had seen considerable positive changes, bigger than anyone had imagined. And that building new foundations takes time, determination, patience, and perseverance.

“We must not overreact.”

PSG did get a reaction when they returned to domestic league action over the weekend as they won 3-1 at Rennes to move up to third in Ligue 1.

Luis Enrique’s side currently sit second in their Champions League group behind Newcastle and above AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund. PSG’s next two matches in the competition are at home and away to Milan while Newcastle face Dortmund home and away before travelling to Paris on November 28.