A Newcastle United 'near miss', a striker who rarely misses
Jose Mourinho faces "special" club Newcastle United with Benfica tonight as Nick Woltemade shows there's life after Alexander Isak.
Over the years, I reported on a few near misses from the press box.
By that I mean times when I felt that Newcastle United could, and should, have gone further in major competitions.
Three of those near misses, or missed opportunities, came under the lights in Europe.
There was the UEFA Cup run of the 2003/04 season, when a Didier Drogba-inspired Olympique Marseille ended hopes of silverware in what turned out to be Sir Bobby Robson’s final full season in charge of the club.
Things went up in flames at the Stade Velodrome, a stadium the club will revisit later this season for a Champions League fixture, on a night when the home side’s fans started a real fire in their end.
Three years later in the same competition, it all went wrong away against AZ Alkmaar as the home side, beaten 4-2 at St James’ Park, went through on the away goals rule after a 2-0 loss for Glenn Roeder’s side in Holland.
Defensive mistakes, and a disputed penalty in the home leg, had proved costly in what had seemed like a winnable competition, and European campaign which had begun quietly against a Norwegian club nine months earlier ended without a bang.
After the game, the disappointment was palpable in the mixed zone.
Shay Given said: “What can we say? We have let the fans down again. The whole team did not play well and we are out of Europe, so it is the end of the season.”
Newcastle fans, of course, are used to being let down.
Alan Pardew and an awkward question in Lisbon
But the near miss that sticks out most in my mind came against tonight’s Champions League opposition, Benfica.
Before a ball was kicked in the Europa League quarter-final tie, things had kicked off in the Portuguese press after then-manager Alan Pardew’s pre-match press conference at the Estadio da Luz.
Pardew’s response to a slightly-loaded question about how Benfica, the most successful Portuguese club, would fare in the Premier League did not go down well.
The club, Pardew suggested, would finish between eighth and 10th.
Portuguese journalists did not like the idea that the hugely-successful club would be a mid-table side in England, and the next day’s headlines in Lisbon were not kind.
Newcastle played well in the first leg, but were still beaten 3-1. They were even better at home, especially after Papiss Cisse – who had scored at the Estadio da Luz – netted to put the team within a goal of the last competition’s four.
I clearly remember that frenetic last period as the team pushed for a second goal. In the end, Benfica levelled in injury time to end what was the club’s only European run during Mike Ashley’s time as owner.
Ashley’s indifference to European competition at the time had seen only one senior player, Vurnon Anita, recruited for what would be a challenging campaign at home and abroad following the previous season’s fifth-placed finish, and the club’s league form, inevitably, suffered.
But the team, and Pardew and his coaching staff, deserved credit for taking the team so far in Europe that season.
Ultimately, his side was just a goal away from reaching the semi-finals. Had they progressed, they would have surely been one of the favourites to win the competition.
What Mourinho has said about Newcastle
The hope on Tyneside is that Eddie Howe’s team can progress in the Champions League this season, having put their opening defeat to Barcelona behind them with a convincing 4-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise, their biggest in the competition proper.
Howe and “little Magpie” Jose Mourinho, appointed Benfica manager for the second time last month, held their pre-match pressers yesterday.
Having learnt his trade under the late, great Sir Bobby, Mourinho has never needed much encouragement to speak well of Newcastle on his previous visits to St James’ Park.
And this time he revealed that he had told his players about the club’s “beautiful” and atmospheric home.
“I’ve never hidden how dear Newcastle is to me because of the influence of a legendary person at this club. St James’ Park is a fantastic place to play football. People do not come here to watch the game, they come here to play it with them. It’s not just the stadium, it’s this club, the history, the passion and the fans.
“With the economic power they have now, it’s a team that’s very close to even bigger things. It’s a very special club, because of the culture in this region. It’s very different culturally to London and to Manchester. I said to my players: ‘It’s beautiful here, and you will feel that atmosphere.’”
Mourinho knows from experience just how hard it can be to get a result at St James’ Park when Newcastle’s players AND fans are playing as one.
And tonight, hopefully, will be another special Champions League occasion.
So when I think of Benfica at St James’ Park, I think of that near Pardew-era miss, and that 20-minute period when Newcastle threw everything at their visitors, only to concede a late goal.
This Newcastle side, looking to put their weekend defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion behind them, can make their own history tonight.
And, looking at Howe’s team, I see a striker, five-goal Nick Woltemade, who seemingly cannot miss.
You state: "Three years later in the same competition, it all went wrong away against AZ Alkmaar as the home side, beaten 4-2 at St James’ Park by Glenn Roeder’s team, went through on the away goals rule after a 2-2 draw in Holland." - Eh? You saying thay away goals win in a purported cumulative 6-4 aggregate??? Give your head a shake! NUFC actually LOST in Alkmaar by the totally predicatble 0-2 the home team needed to go through. I was at both. The latter was heart-rendering.