The Brazil international has seen it all after 103 caps for his country but admits he found it tough against Newcastle
13:54, 29 Jan 2026Updated 13:55, 29 Jan 2026
Anthony Gordon of Newcastle is challenged by PSG’s Willian Pacho of PSG and Marquinhos(Image: Dave Winter/Shutterstock)
Paris St-Germain skipper Marquinhos was at the centre of a storm at Parc des Princes last night after getting away with a handball incident just before Joe Willock’s equaliser.
Newcastle protested furiously at the officials after seeing Lewis Miley penalised for an accidental handball in the first 45 seconds before Marquinhos was cleared for doing similar later in the first half. The former AS Roma player broke his silence and faced the media after the clash in Paris.
And he shed light on why PSG struggled against the Magpies, he explained: “We wanted to win to qualify for the top eight, that was our goal today. We played as well as we could, with intensity, we created chances, but unfortunately they took advantage of their strengths: counter-attacks, free kicks, balls in the air.
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“That’s the way it is, every team has its own philosophy and mentality. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted, but we qualified and that’s the positive thing about tonight.
“Now we’re going to play with the cards we have, which means fighting in every game like it’s a final, like we did last year.”
It means that PSG are also lumbered with two extra games next month. However, it did them no harm last season as they reached the final and thrashed Inter Milan.
The centre-back said: “We’re only going to play finals, only important games. We’ve got almost all our players back.
“Now we have to move forward, work harder and gain confidence as a team, as we did last year, so that we can achieve our goals for the second half of the season. It will give us momentum, more matches to play and gain confidence.
“We have to take it step by step and not look too far ahead. We know that the road is very, very long and very difficult. In every match, we’ll have to fight as if it were our last match of the season.”
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