UEFA Cup Quarter-Final Draw Info
The draw for the remaining rounds of
the UEFA Cup will take place tomorrow at 12.00pm British time at UEFA
headquarters. The draw will be UNSEEDED and teams from the same country
will not be kept apart.
Teams through to the draw:
NEWCASTLE UNITED (ENG)
AZ Alkamaar (HOL)
CSKA Moscow (RUS)
Austria Vienna (AUS)
Auxerre (FRA)
Parma (ITA)
Sporting Lisbon (POR)
Steaua Bucharest (ROM)/Villarreal (ESP) [1st leg 0-0, 2nd leg 20th
March]
All ties will be played on the 7th and 14th of April. The draw will
be live on video, audio and in text at Uefa.com
FA Cup Semi-Final Details Confirmed
From the official NUFC website:
The FA has today (Thursday) confirmed details of this season's
FA Cup Semi-Finals.
Arsenal will play Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, 16th April with
kick-off at 12.15pm, while Newcastle United will play Manchester
United on Sunday, 17th April with kick-off at 2pm. Both matches
will take place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Newcastle United are playing on the Sunday due to their progress
to the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Cup, which involves them playing
on Thursday, 14th April.
FA Director of Communications Adrian Bevington said:
"The kick-off times are always set after full consultation with
the police and other safety authorities, and with safety and
security considerations given the highest importance. We have
taken a responsible decision bearing in mind these issues and
the travel arrangements for fans from the four competing clubs.
"The decision to play this season's Semi-Finals in Cardiff was
announced in September last year. Using the Millennium Stadium
will allow around 30,000 fans from each club to attend the matches,
which is more than at any stadium in England. Cardiff has proved
to be a very popular venue with fans in the past, and we can
look forward to two fantastic matches with great atmospheres."
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Toon New Boy Peter Ramage On His Debut
"It was a dream come true. I thought
I had a sneaky chance of getting on if we went a couple of goals
in front and when we did the manager said 'you're going on'.
It happened all in a minute.
"I've played at right-back a few times. I'd play anywhere for
this club. As a boy coming through the ranks you'll play anywhere.
"I was a bit nervous, but as soon as you get on the pitch you're
OK. It's brilliant playing with these players. They breed confidence
in you. All my family were there. My mum, dad and girlfriend
were there so it was nice to go out in front of them.
"The game plan at the start was to try and get a couple of goals
in front early on and kill them off, kill their spirit.
"When Kieron scored it didn't kill the game off. We still had
a job to do. But it made the job a lot easier and when Alan
scored it was perfect for us."
Souness & Co. Ganning Back To Dubai
Since returning from a controversial
break in Dubai United have won all 8 of their games proceeding
the trip and with a fixture break coming up after the Pompey
game with World Cup 2006 Qualifiers due to be played, Toon manager
Graeme Souness will take his squad back to Dubai for a break
next week.
Speaking in today's Chronicle the Scot said:
"The chairman said if we won every game after coming back
from Dubai we could go out there again, and he has been true
to his word.
"We felt at the time that the trip had been very beneficial
for us and this has proved to be the case."
United could be without up to 11 senior pros with Kieron Dyer,
Jermaine Jenas, Nicky Butt, Shay Given, Stephen Carr, Andy O'Brien,
Steven Taylor, James Milner, Jean Alain Boumsong, Amdy Faye
and Celestine Babayaro all unlikely to be available due to international
call-ups.
Nobody can say they haven't deserved it.
Former Toon Boss Bill McGarry Passes Away
Former Newcastle United manager Bill
McGarry passed away earlier today at the age of 71 after a long
illness. McGarry was appointed in 1977, succeeding Richard Dinnis
midway through that season.
Arriving from Wolverhampton Wanderers where he took the Midlands
outfit all the way to a UEFA Cup final win in '72 and the League
Cup in '74, McGarry was brought in to sort out the dressing
room and to restore club discipline.
A tough no nonsense manager he couldn't prevent United from
falling into the old 2nd Division however and nor could he win
back top-flight status.
In a 3 year stay on Tyneside he sold big names in Tommy Craig,
Alan Gowling, Geoff Nulty, Mickey Burns and Stewart Barrowclough.
He did bring in Peter Withe, Terry Hibbitt and Mick Martin among
others though.
In the 1980-81 season he was sacked and his record reads:
P: 118 W: 37 L: 48 D: 33
RIP
UEFA Cup: NUFC 4-0 Olympiakos
Toon win 7-1 on
aggregate
Newcastle marked their 100th game in Europe last night with
a thoroughly comprehensive victory over Greece's top side, thumping
the Athens men 4-0 at St. James' Park to make it to the Quarter-Finals
of the UEFA Cup and to make it 8 straight wins in a row - equaling
Kevin Keegan's run of '95.
Unlike the performance on Sunday, United came out to play for
the entire 90 minutes this time and although the away side were
awful in every sense, Graeme Souness' men simply knocked the
stuffing out of them from the first to the final whistle with
a superior performance. The Toon's best for a long long time.
The rout got underway on 18 minutes when Kieron Dyer,
playing in an advanced free role just off Alan Shearer, cheekily
back-heeled the ball into the net from Laurent Robert's free-kick
which hadn't been cleared.
Prior to the opening goal United had created numerous chances
with Nicky Butt hitting the cross-bar with a thumping 22-yard
drive, Steven Taylor, playing at left-back, hitting the side
netting and Big Al missing a glorious chance to cut away at
Wor Jackie's record when one on one with Nikopolidis who was
looking everything but a Euro Champ, more like Euro chump.
Two more chances went begging for the No.9. Both from Robert's
brilliant free-kicks with the Skipper narrowly glancing a header
just wide and failing by inches to get on the end of another.
Shearer wasn't to be thwarted much longer though - just
before half-time he grabbed his first of the night, smashing
the ball home from 6-yards out from Dyer's cut back, taking
a slight deflection on the way.
2-0 up at the break and Oly were dead and buried.
Into the second half Newcastle carried on where they left off,
keeping the ball, getting at the opposition and pressing high
up the park when the visitors enjoyed some rare possession.
I say enjoyed, they didn't get any time on the ball whatsoever
with every man in Black & White closing down space and snapping
away at ankles all night. There was no taking the foot off the
gas in this game.
10 minutes in the excellent Lee Bowyer added his name
to the scoresheet in comical fashion... for Olympiakos' Nikopolidis
anyway. The midfielder's initial looping header was clawed out
from under the bar by the Greek 'keeper only for Jermaine Jenas
to retrieve it and pull it back for Bowyer to slide his shot
under the goalies' body, just squeezing it into the net.
3-0 up and coasting, Souness made 3 changes in the space of
10 minutes. First to leave were Dyer and Robert who both walked
off to a standing ovation. They were replaced by James Milner
and Charles N'Zogbia respectively. The final change of the night
saw a Toon debut for Geordie boy Peter Ramage, coming
on in place of Stephen Carr at right-back. Congratulations.
Not long after the changes, Shearer grabbed goal 191
in a United shirt with a quite stunning finish. After good link
up play involving Butt, Ramage and Milner the ball was worked
to the centre-forward who broke free of Olympiakos' off-side
trap and rounded the keeper to power a shot high into the roof
of the net. What was so stunning about that? There was an Oly
player on the line, had Shearer just hit it, the ball would
have been cleared. Instead he gave the man in goal no chance
by deliberatly aiming above him - and with deadly accuracy,
that net bulged. That strike capped another fine night for the
Toon hit man. Lets hope he has many more yet.
4-0 up on the night and 7-1 on aggregate the game was over.
Newcastle kept the ball, killed the game and could have even
added to their tally as the game drew to a close.
All in all a quite magnificent performance on the night. A classic
European performance that saw off a side who not so long ago,
had accumulated 10 points in their Champions League group prior
to being knocked out. A side we were all unsure of leading up
the the two legged tie. A side who, on paper at least, looked
capable of ending our European adventure. On last night's performance,
we look more than capable of ending the run of any of the sides
left in the UEFA Cup. No team will fancy facing Souness' men
and we have nobody to fear.
Well done Graeme and the lads. Great stuff!
Teams:
United: Given, Carr (Ramage 67), Taylor, O'Brien, Hughes,
Jenas, Bowyer, Butt, Robert (N'Zogbia 58), Dyer (Milner 58),
Shearer. Subs not ysed: Harper, Faye, Ambrose.
Goals: Dyer 18, Shearer 45, Bowyer 54, Shearer 69.
Booked: None
Olympiakos: Nikopolidis, Mavrogenidis, Vallas, Anatolakis,
Pantos, Maric, Stoltidis (Taralidis 79), Kafes, Djordjevic (Okkas
60), Giovanni (Filipakos 67), Castillo. Subs not used: Giannou,
Schurrer, Kouloucheris, D'Acol.
Booked: Vallas
Att: 32,163
Ref: Konrad Plautz (Austria) |
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