Newcastle United 0-0 Paris Saint-Germain – LIVE: Ousmane Dembele wastes early chance to put visitors ahead as Champions League football returns to St James’ Park for the first time in 20 YEARS

Lascelles reads the situation well and intervenes just as Mbappe looked to break clear following a lovely pass from Hernandez. The frantic pace of the first few minutes has dropped a little, while it’s absolutely lashing it down at St James’ Park.

Newcastle win a free-kick after Gordon is fouled, but it comes to nothing as PSG deal with the delivery well. Eddie Howe will be pleased by how his side have started, with Tonali, Guimaraes and Gordon all looking lively.

So close for PSG! Mbappe receives the ball on the left and is inexplicably granted enough time to pick a pass, which he does as he swings the ball across the box for Dembele, who volleys just wide of the post.

It’s a timely remeinder of what PSG can do and it momentarily quietens the crowd.

PSG look to make inroads, with Dembele almost releasing Hakimi before Burn intervenes. Then Gordon chases down a lost cause like a man possessed and nearly forces PSG into an error.

His pressing is met with a roar of approval.

Newcastle have come out of the blocks with purpose, their pressing forcing PSG into an early mistake. Expect more of the same throughout the night.

Newcastle players gather ijn a huddle, while Mbappe looks around with the look of a man who’s seen it and done it all before and we’re off.

Right, then. Here we go. Champions League football is officially back at St James’ Park after two decades as the teams walk out onto the pitch to a raucous reception, which seems to get even louder as the Champions League anthem is played.

The atmosphere is absolutely electric. Is that a cliche? Maybe. Is it also very apt on such occasions? Also yes.

Newcastle are pulling out all the stops, with a loud rendition of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds echoing around the ground.

The song, of course, is Ajax’s unofficial anthem and European royalty doesn’t come bigger than the Dutch club.

St James’ Park is a sea of black and white. Say what you like about plastic flags, but this is truly quite the scene.

The big question on everyone’s mind – OK, for some of us at least – is not whether Kylian Mbappe can do it on a coolWednesday night on the Toon, but whether he will be wearing gloves.

If the warm-up is anything to go by, the Frenchman has opted to ditch the gloves he wore in training yesterday.

Eddie Howe believes Newcastle have done their homwork on Mbappe.

‘Of course we’ve done our work on him and we have to respect the talent that he has. I think a lot will depend today on where he plays,’ he tells TNT Sport.

‘A lot will depend on whether hee plays off the left or in a more central position. We’re prepared for both. The hard bit is implementing our plan to nullify his threat.

If Eddie Howe is feeling the pressure ahead of his home debut in the Champions League, he certainly isn’t showing it.

He’s been speaking to TNT Sport: ‘It’s very special … you come here and see what it means to everybody ,’ he says.

‘We want to succeed, do well, it’s going to be a big night for us … it’s about the detail, we’ve got to get it right … we have to be tactically aware of what we have to do.

‘Hopefully we have a fast start and it will settle us down, we come into this game in good form, we’ve got some very good players underneath that ability, team spirit and commitment.

St James’ is sure to be bouncing for the first Champions League game here in 20 years and PSG boss Luis Enrique sounded a fearful note.

Enrique played and scored for Barcelona in the first ever Champions League match at St James’ in 1997, when Tino Asprilla scored a famous hat-trick in a 3-2 victory for the hosts.

‘They are the team from pot four that no one wanted,’ said the Spaniard.

‘We know they play at a very high level. They are good in possession, and then off the ball, they play with a very high press. They’re almost a complete football team, really.

‘It wasn’t easy back then – and I don’t suppose it will be easy tomorrow. It is a hostile atmosphere, but hostile from a sporting point of view.

‘It is a spectacular place to play, and it is going to be interesting to see how my players cope with playing at St James’ Park. I am envious of them, because they get to experience it first hand out on the pitch.’

Kieran Trippier’s son will be one of the mascot at St James’ Park tonight, but six-year-old Jacob has risked his dad’s ire by suggesting he wants to walk out alongside Kylian Mbappe!

‘I was having a bit of banter with him last night, and he said he wanted to walk out with Mbappe instead of me – I wasn’t really happy with that!’ Trippier said.

‘He’s obsessed with him, always watching his clips on YouTube . I said, “If you get to walk out with Mbappe, you don’t look at me in the tunnel!”.’

Their duel is a fascinating sub-plot to the showpiece fixtures of this week’s Champions League group matches. Right-back versus left-winger. Newcastle’s best versus Paris Saint-Germain ’s best. It is where the game could be won and lost.

Eddie Howe expects a raucous atmosphere at St James’ Park, but has warned his players must keep their emotions in check.

‘I can’t wait to experience the home atmosphere and what our fans create,’ he said in his pre-match press conference.

‘I think it will be a really memorable night and hopefully our performance will make it that way, too.

The fans will bring their positivity, noise, enthusiasm and love for the game. It’s up to us to use that powerfully and positively on the pitch. You can use too much emotion on the pitch, but I think we’ve been getting that balance right at home.”

Starting XI: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Skriniar, Lucas Hernández; Dembélé, Ugarte, Zaïre-Emery; Kolo Muani, Gonçalo Ramos, Mbappé.

Newcastle kicked off their first Champions League campaign in two decades with a creditable 0-0 draw at the San Siro against AC Milan.

They were not perfect in Milan a fortnight ago and escaped with a point despite conceding 26 shots, while PSG beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 courtesy of goals from Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi.

The Toon have won all three of their matches since that draw in the San Siro so shouldn’t be short of confidence.

These included an 8-0 thrashing of Sheffield United, a 1-0 win over Manchester City in the Carabao Cup and a 2-0 home league win over Burnley.

PSG, meanwhile, thrashed their great rivals Marseille 4-0 before being held to an unexpected 0-0 draw at Clermont, leaving them fifth in Ligue 1.

A busy night is in store across Europe, with all the below fixtures kicking off at 8pm BST, aside from Atletico Madrid vs Feyenoord and Antwerp vs Shakhtar.

Manchester City are in action in Germany against RB Leipzig, while Celtic host Lazio.

• Atletico Madrid v Feyenoord (in progress)
• Celtic v Lazio

• Borussia Dortmund v AC Milan
• Newcastle United v PSG

• Red Star Belgrade v Young Boys
• RB Leipzig v Manchester City

• Royal Antwerp v Shakhtar Donetsk (in progress)
• Porto v Barcelona

Starting XI: Pope; Trippier, Lascelles (c), Schär, Burn; Longstaff, Bruno, Tonali; Almiron, Isak, Gordon.

Subs: Dubravka, Karius, Dummett, Targett, Hall, Livramento, Anderson, L. Miley

The clash at St James’ Park pits the two richest clubs in football one against each other, with Newcastle majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and PSG bankrolled by Qatar.

That makes the fixture intriguing from a geopolitical standpoint, given the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been frosty at best in recent times.

An economic blockade spilled over into the sport scene with BeIN Sports, led by its chairman and PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, were banned from operating in Saudi Arabia.

BeIN filed protests over the emerge of pirate operator, beoutQ, which they alleged was backed by Saudi Arabia and had been broadcasting Premier League matches over a four-year period.

And so to Tyneside then, which last welcome Champions League football 20 years ago when Newcastle lost to Barcelona 2-0.

To put that into context, Tony Blair was serving his second term at Downing Street, Girls Aloud topped the UK charts and Kylian Mbappe was five years old.

It is, in other words, been a long time since the Toon Army tasted this kind of night.

But glamorous European ties could become par for the course under Newcastle’s new ownership, who has made no mystery of their desire to make a splash in the Champions League.

European football’s biggest trophy has been at the forefront of PSG’s thoughts since the Qatar Sports Investment took over in 2012, but it has proved frustratingly elusive so far.

Good evening and welcome to St James’ Park, where Newcastle face Paris Saint-Germain in their blockbuster Champions League clash tonight.

Coming up we’ll have all the build-up and team news from Newcastle ahead of kick-off and then all the action from 8pm.

If last night’s Champions League action is anything to go by, we could be in for a cracking night of European football.