Newcastle United 1-0 Chelsea |
 |
Date:
Sunday 20th February 2005
Kick Off: 4.00pm BST
Venue: St. James' Park
Att: 45,740
Ref: Mark Halsey
Comp: FA Cup 5th Round |
| Premiership
Match Report In Association With Toon
Ale |
|
Quarter-Finals Here We Come
By Maddog
The Toon Army heaved a collective sign of relief as the team sheet
was announced. With the absence of Amdy Faye and Lee Bowyer to suspension,
Newcastle fielded arguably their strongest team with a formation most
suited to them. The recall of Laurent Robert and Patrick Kluivert
(in his natural position!) being the most crucial factors.
It took only four minutes for the much criticized pair of Robert and
Kluivert to make their impact. Given acres of space down the left,
Robert curled in beautiful cross and Kluivert outpowered and outjumped
William Gallas to head the ball past keeper Carlo Cudicini.
With Newcastle in the lead, it seemed that they would throw it away
once again as five minutes later Mateja Apeman (…sorry Kezman) lobbed
the ball above Shay Given after being sent clear, but was unlucky
to see his shot come back off the crossbar.
It was then that you just knew luck was on our side.
Chelsea didn't threaten the Newcastle goal for the rest of the match,
with Jiri Jarosik coming the closest with a long range drive that
Given comfortably cleared seven minutes before half-time.
Chelsea were looking deficient in ideas much like Newcastle have been
all season, while Newcastle were looking like a new team, the famed
team of the Sir Bobby Robson’s days reborn.
With a 1-0 lead to Newcastle at half-time, Jose Mourinho gambled on
a triple substitution for the restart - bringing on Frank Lampard,
Damien Duff and Eidur Gudjohnsen for Joe Cole, Geremi and Cardoso
Tiago. The gamble backfired only two minutes later, with Wayne Bridge
being stretched off with a suspected broken angle after being felled
by a perfectly legitimate tackle by Alan Shearer.
It was the turning point of the game, that put Newcastle in the driving
seat. But despite being reduced to ten-men Chelsea still gave Newcastle
a game, though they never threatened the goal.
Robert gave right-back Glenn Johnson a torrid time all night, and
could have put Newcastle two up if he had squared up Shearer after
turning Johnson inside out but he wastefully tried to shoot, the ball
rolling to safety.
Robert was arguably one of the best performers on the pitch, even
if his wildly fluctuating consistency throughout the match frustrated
the manager and the fans.
Graeme Souness made substitutions of his own at few minutes past the
hour mark, bringing on Shola Ameobi for Shearer and James Milner for
Kieron Dyer. Both Shearer and Dyer had battled well for an hour, but
they were the least effective players on the pitch and the substitutions
were spot on.
With Milner on, Newcastle could attack the space on both the wings,
even though the youngster let himself down horribly with the final
ball.
Chelsea were effectively reduced to nine and a half men as Duff and
Cudicini blocked a goalbound Stephen Carr, leaving Duff with a bad
knee with 16 minutes still to go.
A few minutes from time, Kluivert received the ball on the edge of
the box turned around Ricardo Carvalho superbly only to be fouled
by the Blues defender, with the Chelsea man lucky to get off with
only a yellow card as he denied the Dutch man a clear goalscoring
opportunity.
But not so lucky was 'keeper Cudicini who raced out of his box as
Ameobi was sent clear, only to upend him outside the box and earn
himself a red card.
Johnson took over the gloves and somehow saved the resulting Robert
freekick, but it was defeat in more ways than one with Duff and Gallas
both finishing the match in obvious discomfort and Bridge facing a
spell on the sidelines.
A nervy but great win for the Toon, but a glass must be raised in
honour of our much criticized manager who finally played our best
team in its most effective formation.
Well done, Souness and I hope you noticed that we won 1-0 WITH ROBERT
in the team.
More...
Player
Ratings Vs Chelsea
| Newcastle
4-4-2 |
Chelsea
4-3-3 |
Match
Facts & Stats
Half-Time: 1-0
Full-Time: 1-0
Yellow Cards: 2
Red Cards: 1
Goalscorers: Kluivert
(4)
Yellow Cards: 0
Red Cards: 0
Substitutions: 2
Ameobi (Shearer 64), Milner (Dyer 68)
Injuries: None to report of
Goalscorers: None
Yellow Cards: Tiago (38), Carvalho (90)
Red Cards: Cudicini (90)
Substitutions: 3
Duff (Cole 45), Gujohnsen (Tiago 45), Lampard (Geremi 45)
Injuries: Bridge, Duff, Gallas, Cudicini |
| Given |
Cudicini |
| Carr |
Johnson |
| Boumsong |
Gallas |
| Bramble |
Carvalho |
| Babayaro |
Bridge |
| Dyer |
Jarosik |
| Butt |
Smertin |
| Jenas |
Tiago |
| Robert |
Geremi |
| Shearer |
Kezman |
| Kluivert |
Cole |
| Substitutes
Bench |
| Caig |
Cech |
|
Hughes |
Ferreira |
| N'Zogbia |
Lampard |
|
Milner |
Duff |
| Ameobi |
Gudjohnsen |
Patrick Kluivert's 1st FA Cup goal. An FA Cup Toon debut for Nicky
Butt. 1st 1-0 win of the season at St. James' Park. Now 1 defeat in
10 with 6 wins, 3 draws.
| How The Goals Were
Scored |
NUFC Goal 4 Minutes: Patrick Kluivert
Neat approach play from United sw the ball switch from the centre
to Robert out on the left who sent in a great cross for Kluivert to
nip in ahead of Gallas at the near post, powering a bullet header
past Cudicini for a great goal.
| Match Reaction From
Graeme Souness |
Graeme Souness on the match:
 "We
had a few breaks today, but I think we've maybe been due a few of
them and I'm delighted to go through.
"We went into the game with a lot of confidence following our success
in Holland on thursday, and we couldn't have asked for a better start
than to score inside the first few minutes.
"Chelsea made a few changes to their side, but i don't think you can
call that a weakened side. I don't think they have such a thing with
a squad like that.
"I thought we battled well, and there some great performances all
over the field. Titus was outstanding for us, he's had a bit of stick
but he's showed what's he's capable of today.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, he needs to do that consistently
now."
Souness on Robert:
"We know Laurent can do that (crossing & attacking) and we
are just trying to work with him when he does not have the ball.
"There is no criticism of him in the final third - it is in the
last third."
Shearer on the win:
 "We've
had a very good week. It's been an important week for us and we've
come away with two victories so I think we deserve a bit of credit.
"We got the goal early against Chelsea and that got the crowd up.
"They gambled at half time with the substitutions, then Wayne Bridge
got injured when they didn't have any subs left.
"I made the challenge on him, but it wasn't a foul. It was just an
innocuous challenge and he's gone over awkwardly on his ankle I think.
"I went to see him after the game and he was in a lot of pain. Hopefully
he'll be OK and won't be out for too long.
"As for the game, it was never comfortable for us, but they didn't
really trouble Shay Given.
"We're in the last eight of the FA Cup now and have given ourselves
a good chance of progressing in the UEFA Cup with that win in the
first leg, so we've kept our season going over the last couple of
days.
"We'll look forward to the next international break so we can go to
Dubai again!"
| Match Reaction
From Jose Mourinho |
Mourinho on the game:
"Sometimes, you're proud of your team when they win and sometimes
you're proud of your team even when they lose and I was proud of them
today.
"I think the mentality was fantastic the way the team reacted
after losing the goal and playing with 10 players during the second
45 and then nine and a half men when Duff was injured." |
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