'Glorious failure': Keith Downie gives Newcastle United's Champions League campaign a solid grade on Sky Sports

Newcastle United continue in the Champions League, but not in the way they were hoping before 8 pm last night.

A win last night would have seen the Magpies avoid the need to play a two-legged play-off to try to make it into the knock-out stage, but it wasn't meant to be.

PSG held the Magpies to a 1-1 draw on their home turf, much like they did two years ago in the final group stage game, once again heavily assisted by some dodgy officiating.

However, you'll not hear many Newcastle fans complaining about the performance that Eddie Howe's much-changed side put in at the Parc des Princes last night, and indeed, overall in Europe's elite competition.

Newcastle just missed out on a top-eight finish last night in the Champions League

The fact that Newcastle were the underdogs in the competition, coming in as the lowest-ranked team as per the UEFA coefficient, and they only just missed out on automatic progression as a top-eight team, is certainly an achievement.

They didn't have it easy, either. They faced Barcelona, PSV (who battered Liverpool at Anfield), Bayer Leverkusen, Athletic Bilbao, Benfica, Marseille and PSG, who are all capable of causing anyone problems on their day.

Each Sky Sports reporter covering the English clubs in the competition was asked to rank their respective teams' performance in the competition, and Keith Downie was on duty to award Newcastle's letter grade.

Keith Downie has been impressed with Newcastle in the Champions League so far this season

Downie handed the Magpies a B grade for their efforts in the competition, which we feel is very fair, and we loved his use of the phrase 'glorious failure' to describe missing out on the top eight.

"I would give Newcastle a B for their efforts in the Champions League group stages. There have been some good performances, particularly at home, but they just missed out on a place in the top eight by a point.

"They gave it everything here at the Parc des Princes against PSG tonight and probably deserved to win, so it's a glorious failure if you'd like. However, they do continue in the competition."