Champions League make surprise Newcastle United announcement after famous PSG win

Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali was the fastest player during the second round of Champions League group games last week.

After opening up their Group F campaign with a goalless against AC Milan at the San Siro, the Magpies stunned French champions Paris Saint-Germain by surging to a 4-1 victory at St James’ Park.

Miguel Almiron handed the Magpies the lead in the opening stages before Geordie defender Dan Burn made it 2-0 before half-time.

Another Geordie, North Shields-born Sean Longstaff, put United 3-0 just after the interval. Lucas Hernandez pulled one back for PSG but Fabian Schar capped off a memorable night with a 25-yard strike during injury time.

• Watch now on Shots!, Newcastle United’s Road Back to Europe - our latest exclusive video feature

It was Newcastle’s biggest-ever Champions League victory on what was their first home fixture in the competition for 20 years.

Now, if you’d have banked on any player recording a top speed on Tyneside, it’d have been Kylian Mbappe, right? Well, eat your heart out Kylian because that small accolade goes to Tonali.

As revealed by the Champions League’s official X account, the Italian recorded a top speed of 35.5km/h - also ranking ahead of the likes of AC Milan’s Christian Pulisic and Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford & Rasmus Hojlund.

Mbappe was joint sixth in the list at 34.4km/h. Second behind Tonali was Benfica’s David Neres at 35.4km/h.

Not many Newcastle fans associated pace with Tonali but the midfielder was able to get up to top speed to help see out a historic victory.