Eddie Howe content to go down play-off path as Newcastle are held to draw at PSG | OneFootball

Eddie Howe admitted he probably would have taken a Champions League play-off place at the start of the campaign after Newcastle narrowly missed out on automatic qualification for the last 16.

Wednesday night’s creditable 1-1 draw at reigning champions Paris St Germain ensured the Magpies finished in 12th place in the table, one behind PSG on goals scored, and they will face either Monaco, who currently lie 10th in Ligue 1, or Azeri champions Qarabag in the play-offs.

Asked if he would have settled for that in September, head coach Howe said: “I probably would have done. I don’t know.

“We didn’t set out with that intention, we set out to try to qualify outright, but I think you take every eventuality that falls your way.

“Now, we knew this would be our last game and it was going to be really tough if we were needing to win, and that was the position we found ourselves in.

“We went all out to try to do that, to try to win the game and we chased it as much as we could without leaving ourselves with the possibility of losing, because I don’t think that would have helped us either.

“We gave everything we could to try to finish in the top eight; we didn’t quite get there, so we have to go another route.”

If Newcastle had been warned to weather an early storm then they were not to be disappointed, Pope brilliantly saving Ousmane Dembele’s penalty before Vitinha fired the hosts in front.

Pope said: “Going two goals behind here is really difficult, so to obviously keep that one out and then stay in the game at one goal, it was great character from the group. We showed real maturity and obviously came back.”

Having been left dazed, the Magpies regrouped, found some organisation and got themselves back into it when Joe Willock headed home in first-half stoppage time, and they might even have snatched victory when substitutes Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes injected pace and endeavour at the death.

Howe was disappointed with the penalty which which awarded against his side two years after they were denied victory at the same venue by a controversial late spot-kick, but was more annoyed that PSG skipper Marquinhos later escaped a similar fate.

He said: “You can debate the first decision, but if you think it’s a penalty – which obviously the officials did – then for me, the next one has to be a penalty as well.

“I don’t think the first one is, personally, I don’t think the one against Lewie should have been given. It hits their player’s arm first and it’s unintentional.”

Opposite number Luis Enrique was in defiant mood after a result which followed last week’s defeat at Sporting Lisbon and December’s goalless draw at Athletic Bilbao.

He said: “Newcastle, you think it’s an easy team to play? I think it’s clear. Against who we have played, we could have played better, yes, granted. We could have obtained better results, yes.

“But after analysing the type of matches that we’ve played, we’re still there, we’re ready and we’ll see which teams we will be playing against.”