Game On! Newcastle v SC Braga

Viana in his United days
Newcastle play their final game of their tour of Portugal this evening, just 24 hours after they kicked off their first one.

That was of course our rather farcical 1-1 (or 4-4 after a penalty shootout) draw against Olympiakos last night, which leaves us with a chance of becoming only the second side from outside Portugal to win, to give it its full name, the Trofeu Internacional de Futebol do Guadiana.

To do so we’ll have to overcome a face that should be familiar to most of us. Hugo Viana signed for us ten years ago now and stayed with us for three seasons. He was dubbed as the next Portuguese superstar and arrived at St James’ Park with a better reputation than a young Cristiano Ronaldo who cam through the Sporting Lisbon academy at the same time as Viana.

Unfortunately for Viana his career path took an entirely different route to that of Ronaldo and I would say that it’s fair to suggest he was ultimately a failure during his spell on Tyneside. That’s not to say that I don’t think it could never have worked for him, but I just think everything weighed on him and he took his time to settle and adjust even though he did show brief glimpses of quality.

Still time moves on and so must we. Viana now plays for the “other side” tonight where he has become an integral part of their team. SC Braga are in the Europa League this season and, like us, must qualify from the same round that we are in so they aren’t a poor side by any stretch of the imagination.

On our part we can expect to see come faces who were rested last night. Jonas Gutierrez, Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Simpson, Cheik Tiote and Ryan Taylor all sat out the match last night so it’s fair to assume they’ll get the nod tonight. Yohan Cabaye will have to settle for a cameo role however, and that is only if the game is going a certain way according to Alan Pardew. That “certain way” is presumably not the way that Olympiakos were going about things last night!

The game is being shown live on ESPN, making my three month free offer seem like a really good deal as I’ve now watched the last four pre-season matches without the hassle of finding an internet stream listening to it legally and above aboard. However for those who don’t have ESPN I’m pretty sure it will be available somewhere… Kick-off is at 8:45pm UK time.

Team news will be added in below as and when it becomes available.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Colocini, James Tavernier, Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, Cheik Tiote, Sylvain Marveaux, Demba Ba, Sammy Ameobi, Papiss Cisse

Subs: Tim Krul, James Tavernier, Paul Dummett, Steven Taylor, Davide Santon, James Perch, Romain Amalfitano, Gabriel Obertan, Gael Bigirimana, Haris Vuckic, Mehdi Abeid, Shola Ameobi

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

220 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v SC Braga

  1. Andymag, you’re right again. There again this is probably 80% of our strongest line up… 😐

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  2. He’s been unspectacular but steady so far tonight. Could it be that Marveaux has finally put his injury problems behind him ?

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  3. Right what have I missed ,just spent the first half cleaning the lad up .he had a coughing fit and did his usual trick up throwing up everywhere 👿 god I hate puke .He’s dozing on the sofa now ,can’t put him to bed as just readministered his meds 🙄 got to make sure they stay down for an hour now.

    Sorry too much info really .Is Tiote o.k ?

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  4. MUNICH MAG i your reet i am the local i’ll keep ye right if you come , Thats the one thing i really miss living here , having a few pints with a fellow geordie and going too SJP .

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  5. im sure the players this time last year were on the ramadam thing

    the way ba cisse and tiote are playing i guess they are again … if so WE CAN NOT START ALL 3 against spurs no way

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  6. Axel, I’m the same mate, although there is a canny pub culture in Germany, it’s nowt like the toon 🙁

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  7. Ice ,thanks ,he’s next to me asleep ,hopefully stays that why for at least an hour like. He got a cold 4 weeks ago and it went to his chest .He’s had 3 lots of anti biotics but still chesty ,hence the coughing fit . He never used to puke so much as he does now,it’s a new thing he’s started to do over the last year 🙁 .

    He’s missing the match now poor thing. Have we been good?

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  8. Kim its been very scrappy and Tiote will do well not to get sent off.
    I hope the Lad gets rid of his cough soon as it can hang around for a while

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  9. MM I have always said the same about Tiote, he is like a red card on legs, and even when he gets a yellow he still never seems to calm down 👿

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  10. Big D… Mr T looks like he’s been on a raw meat diet, he’s well up for it, but a bit off the pace.. 😆

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  11. Dave ,It’s been a ****** alright ,worse than when he had pnuemonia 😯 it’s viral not bacteria by looks of it . It been better last few days ,that’s why I’m so shocked he hurled again.

    Sounds like Tiotes a bit too fired up like. 🙄

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  12. 1 -0 Demba….lucky lad… 🙄

    Shoyt pen, brilliant finish for the rebound !

    Thought the Braga goalie was gonna start to bubble… 😆

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  13. GOAL 😀 Ba’s as bad as Cisse with the pens ,Think Shola is our best Penalty taker . 😉

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  14. Reet lads lets not concede like we normally do
    Calm down Ba FFS I hate seeing **** like that, if that was the prem he would be off 👿

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  15. Marvaux looks solid, could be our equivalent of the scum’s sessegnon next year,

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  16. Don’t understand why players got to do sly kicks in a meaningless friendly 🙄

    OFFSIDE ******.

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  17. **** they made us look stupid with that equaliser. Timmy would have saved that 🙁

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  18. We’re conceding a lot of goals from the edge of the box. Granted Harps could do nowt about that but how about the defending?

    Can’t even blame Williamson for that one which will gut some people 😆

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  19. he score’s from a free kick when he wants tee ,raylor
    he score’s from a free kick when he wants tee ,raylor

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  20. Kimtoon….divvent worry pet…. 😉

    It’s a cunning tactic of ours to get thoroughly outplayed then win with a piece of brilliance.

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  21. pheww, that was close. Anyonne else see the ryanair sign and thought about Taylor’s freekick? 😆

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