Midfielder Felix Nmecha scored his first goal for Borussia Dortmund as the German side handed Newcastle United their first UEFA Champions League loss this season.
Nmecha’s goal came at the stroke of halftime to help the Bundesliga outfit overcome the Magpies at St. James Park on a rainy Wednesday evening.
Newcastle struggled to cope up with Dortmund’s relentless counter-attacks throughout the game as their defence got breached numerous times, only to be saved by Nick Pope.
Pope made three fine stops in the opening 10 minutes to ensure the result remained at bay. The English goalkeeper denied Donyell Malen twice, before doing the same to Niclas Fullkrug.
Newcastle had chances before Dortmund scored but failed to convert them. Their best fell to Anthony Gordon in the 12th minute, but the forward failed to put his ball past Gregor Kobel after being set-up by Alexander Isak.
Dortmund’s goal came just before the two teams went into the break after Gordon got dispossessed in the center by Nico Schlotterbeck.
The center back passed the ball to Marco Reus, who passed it back to Schlotterbeck to cut it back to Nmecha in the area. The former Manchester City midfielder calmly struck first time past Pope to give his side the deserved lead.
In the second half, Newcastle had three brilliant chances to level matters but were unlucky.
Just shy of an hour, substitute Callum Wilson fired straight at Kobel from a great chance.
Wilson came close again with a few minutes left on the clock when he rattled the crossbar with Kobel left helpless.
In the added minutes, Gordon also agnozingly hit the woodwork and that was the last goalscoring attempt of the game.
With the loss, Newcastle drop to third position in Group F on four points. They are now behind second-placed Dortmund on a head-to-head basis.
PSG lead the way with six points following their 3-0 victory over AC Milan, who sit bottom of the log with two points from three games.
Newcastle will take on Wolves next in the Premier League while Dortmund will visit Frankfurt in the Bundesliga.
