Newcastle United were denied a famous win after PSG were gifted a controversial penalty at the death to rescue a 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes.

Alexander Isak gave Newcastle the lead midway through the first half with a close-range finish after Gianluigi Donnarumma fumbled Miguel Almiron's shot. However, referee Szymon Marciniak awarded PSG a penalty in stoppage time and Kylian Mbappe stepped up to secure his side a point.

Here are five things we learned from the game.

READ MORE: PSG vs Newcastle United highlights

Referee gets it so, so wrong

Newcastle should have been in safe hands when referee Szymon Marciniak was sent for a VAR check in the 96th minute. The Pole is one of the best in the business. The man who refereed last season's Champions League final and took charge of the World Cup final less than a year ago, after all.

It is always a tell-tale sign when a referee goes to the monitor but, surely, this was going to be an exception. UEFA's rules may be different - there is no way this would have been given in the Premier League - but that still can't explain this unbelievable decision. The replays were clear: the ball had come off Tino Livramento's chest then hit his elbow inside the box. It was not a penalty.

In their guidelines for this season, after all, UEFA's football board recommended that the governing body 'should clarify that no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body and, in particular, when the ball does not go towards the goal'. However, astonishingly, Marciniak pointed to the spot.

Spirited Newcastle denied famous win

PSG had scored in each of their previous 48 group stage games, which was a Champions League record. The Ligue 1 leaders had only lost one of their last 35 home matches in the competition at the Parc des Princes. Luis Enrique's side were bidding to reach the last 16 for the 12th year running. That was the scale of the challenge facing a Newcastle side missing 14 senior players.

However, Newcastle did not travel in fear. Far from it. As Kieran Trippier said before the game: "We have got to stick to our principles. Our philosophy is to go after Paris."

Having taken the lead, Newcastle also disrupted PSG's rhythm and defended manfully after weathering an early storm, whether it was Lewis Miley blocking Lee Kang-in's shot or Fabian Schar getting in the way of Ousmane Dembele's goalbound effort in first-half stoppage time.

On the occasions PSG breached Newcastle's stubborn shape after the break, Nick Pope was there to keep his side in front and rushed out off his line to thwart Dembele after the rapid forward was played in with 55 minutes on the clock. If that was an important intervention, well, Pope's point-blank save from substitute Bradley Barcola midway through the second half was nothing short of extraordinary.

It should have been a game-winning save - only for PSG to be given a stoppage time gift. PSG may have had 72% possession, 31 shots and three times as many corners than Newcastle - Mbappe hissed 'we knew it was their game to have nothing' - but the visitors did not deserve this.

Group of death is still alive

Alexander Isak's first ever Champions League goal may yet still prove a crucial one.

Tino Livramento, supposedly playing out of position at left-back, did superbly to wriggle past half a dozen PSG players as he danced along the edge of the penalty area and slipped the ball to Miguel Almiron midway through the first half. The Newcastle forward took a touch before arrowing an effort at goal and the unsighted Gianluigi Donnarumma could only feebly parry the ball into the path of Isak. The Sweden international gambled when several PSG players thought their goalkeeper had it covered and fired Newcastle in front to send 2,000 Geordies into dreamland.

Although Newcastle ultimately had to settle for a point, the Magpies are still alive in the group of death - even if their fate is not in their hands. A win against AC Milan next month will be enough to progress to the last 16 if flaky PSG do not defeat Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park next month.

It is also worth noting that, although Borussia Dortmund have already qualified, Edin Terzic's team will still set out to beat PSG to ensure they finish top and, in theory, land a more favourable draw. That will work in Newcastle's favour.

Tireless Newcastle frustrate Kylian Mbappe before gift

Not many sides can keep Kylian Mbappe quiet. Yet there was another reason why Newcastle took confidence from the 4-1 win in the reverse fixture. Having shut out Mbappe once, who was to say a solid defence could not do so again?

Managing that feat would go a long way to deciding Newcastle's fate in this game and the group as a whole. After all, Mbappe had scored eight goals in his previous four games for club and country. This is a phenomenon who had also found the back of the net at least once in each of the last eight European games that he had started at the Parc des Princes.

However, like at St James', Howe opted against fielding a soldier whose job was to specifically man mark Mbappe. It was again going to come down to Newcastle defending well as a team and nullifying the space the France captain thrives in.

Central to that was Kieran Trippier, who won a couple of crucial early duels to dispossess and unnerve Mbappe, while the tireless Almiron also got back to take the ball off the PSG star in the 20th minute before then winning his side a free-kick near the touchline after breezing past a handful of players. On the one occasion Mbappe tested Newcastle early on, with a clever flick from Achraf Hakimi's cross, Pope kept it out.

Having started out on the left, Mbappe moved through the middle on the hour mark but the striker was frustrated with Pope rushing out to claim one dangerous ball with a quarter of an hour to go. When Mbappe tried to nutmeg Jamaal Lascelles late on, the Newcastle captain stood tall. When Mbappe was denied by Pope, the France star fired wide. It was only following a controversial refereeing decision that Mbappe finally got his chance to score a 98th-minute penalty.

The sceptics are silenced, all right

PSG warned 'anyone still doubting' that the Parc des Princes would be 'on fire' for this game. Luis Enrique appealed to Parisians to be 'more passionate than usual'.

Sure enough, Newcastle players emerged to deafening boos in the warm-up half an hour before kick-off with ultras brandishing a banner reading: "Silence the sceptics". Well, having been written off before the game, injury-hit Newcastle did that in their own way - even after late heartbreak in the city of love.