FC Anzhi Makhachkala v Newcastle – Europa League match preview

toonsy

Anzhi v Newcastle
Anzhi v Newcastle
Newcastle continue their Europa League adventure by travelling to Russia to take on Anzhi Makhachkala in this Round of 16 tie.

The venue should have been the 30,000 capacity Dynamo Stadium in Makhachkala but due to armed conflict in the Dagestan region of Russia UEFA have banned Anzhi from playing their home games at home and alternative venues have been used.

The venues in question have all been in Moscow with the 28,800 Lokomotiv Stadium being used for the group stage of the competition before a switch to the larger 78,000 capacity Luzhniki Stadium for the knockout rounds. Playing “home” games 1,000 miles away from home appears to be an issue for the fans – only 12,000 were present to watch the victory over Bundesliga side Hanover – but it doesn’t appear to be an issue for the players who have a 100% record on “home” soil in the Europa League with six clean sheets in seven games and just one goal conceded so far.

Like us, Anzhi finished as runners up in their group behind Liverpool who have now exited the competition. Bankrolled by Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov and with former Brazil defender Roberto Carlos as Director of Football working with Guss Hiddink at a coaching level, Anzhi have spent over £150 million since the start of 2011 which has allowed them to sign players like Samuel Eto’o, who earns a reported £350,000 a week.

Newcastle:

Papiss Cisse could miss the game with an illness. These illnesses seem to crop up for a lot of Europa League matches. Fabricio Coloccini is out as is Tim Krul, Haris Vuckic and Ryan Taylor remain sidelined while Mathieu Debuchy and Yoan Gouffran are ineligible for this competition.

Dan Gosling is available for selection but the biggest news is that Hatem Ben Arfa could make his return after being left out against Swansea although I suspect we’ll see Benny brought off the bench after so long out.

Previously…

There is no history between the two sides and this will constitute as the first competitive game between the two clubs. Anzhi are currently 2nd in the Russian Premier League and, like Metalist Kharkiv, are on a winter break which is scheduled to end after this game but before the return leg at St James’ Park. They too have been keeping in shape via a series of training camps and friendly matches.

Stats and facts:

Mike Williamson will make his 100th appearance for United if he gets called into action either as unlikely starter or as a substitute.

Shola Ameobi will go looking for his 16th European goal for United. He’s miles behind Alan Shearer who notched 30 continental goals for Newcastle but it’s still not a bad contribution from the Mackem slayer.

This will be our 131st European game. To date we’ve won 73 games, lost 30 and drawn the other 27 matches.

The game will be played on a plastic pitch – or artificial surface as they are known these days and United have never won on such a surface having played on it at Luton, QPR and Oldham previously.

Who to watch:

You have to look at the Anzhi attack and start to worry. Expensively assembled they may be but they do the job and score goals. In fact they’ve already notched 26 times compared to United’s 10 (and that includes the qualifying rounds!) so we need to be wary.

Samuel Eto’o is well known. Pace, power, accuracy and a CV that many a player would be proud of including League titles and Champions League winners medals, but he isn’t the only avenue of attack for Anzhi. How about Lacina Traoré, the 6′ 8″ Ivory Coast striker who has scored five goals in the Europa League to add to the nine Eto’o has contributed.

Behind them they have highly-rated Brazilian playmaker Willian who recently signed from Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk and can provide the bullets for the two strikers to fire and you can start to understand why they score goals. The focus is clearly on attack with the Russians hence the signing of Willian rather than the replacing of Chris Samba who left Anzhi in January.

That’s not to say they didn’t boost their defensive ranks as Bosnian Emir Spahić was brought in on loan from Sevilla, and with former Real Madrid defensive midfielder Lassana Diarra patrolling in front of the back four don’t expect Anzhi to be too shabby at the back either!

Final thought:

I’m still very mindful of our need for Premier League points and have generally been quite negative about our participation in this competition. But you know what? Stuff it, we won’t get this chance again next season unless we win the **** thing so why not go for it!

To get through we’re going to need an away goal for sure in my opinion. A narrow defeat is not the end of the world providing we get an away goal which as highlighted previously is going to be a tough ask. I don’t buy this “mid-season break” stuff meaning that they are going to to be tired. They’ll be ready and up for this and with Guss Hiddink guiding them it will be a tough ask.

All we can do is give it our best shot and as long as we’ve given that I’ll be happy. We can’t ask for much more so go on lads, give it all you’ve got!

Howay the lads!

Date: Thursday, 7th March, 2013

Time: 5pm UK time – An early start live on ITV4 so don’t forget!

Venue: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow

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.

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167 thoughts on “FC Anzhi Makhachkala v Newcastle – Europa League match preview”

  1. MM you have been making my mind going round ican remember the so called physio at heed (think he learned in the scouts) just limp fast son lol,he had his own place at south moor (stanley) making a few quid

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  4. I don’t fancy our chances in this game, even less after learning it is on an artificial pitch.

    On the last article on the Swansea game, I was well peed off. I summed it up as another “hard luck story”. I’ve got no time for hard luck stories. 👿 With the squad we have now, Pards should be picking up results both home and away.

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  6. Ice
    You remember the days when the ball was pigs bladder don’t you? Just kidding 😉 I play on 3G in PE at school all the time, find I get less muscle problems than when I play on regular ground, might just be me though 😕 . Yeah the Shola not being an astropitch player is a bit annoying especially when we don’t have many alternatives, suggests Campbell might get a fair run out which is good cus it’s a tough fixture and Pardew (and the fans) will want to see if he can handle it.

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  7. Like the women who phoned the police saying that someone had knocked her snowman 😕 , it was the sun 🙄 .

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  9. Blackley & Brownlie, we would have at Swansea if the knackers playing in (our) black and white had of taken there chances. There again we should be winning at Swansea with the squad we have… 😳 we “shouldn’t” be winning anywhere, there are no easy games in this league, we need to put in the effort and take our chances. Pardew’s team battered Swansea at times, even though they have the legendary Laudrup in charge, not bad I say. We were genuinely unlucky on Swansea, the same as we were “fortunate” at Villa. Small margins win games at the end of the day.

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  10. Ice @ 99 yeah mate he is good a digging holes, but then he’s probably well used to it with burying leftover food,
    As for the game I would far rather throw Campbell in as he might give us something different as we know what Strolla brings to the game

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  16. ANDY if you say train a hour a day the first half hour you train useing a medicine ball it knacks for the first couple of wks but your calf muscles build up like arnie but keep up with it you will get a shock,unless your a wuss like 😀 after 2/3months you should break the net with a casy 😉

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  17. MM
    I heard 10000, still not a lot though. Can be expected when your home match is over 1000 miles away.

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  18. Ice
    It’s not power that’s the problem with me, I’ve got quite a kick to my shots, it’s accuracy that’s my problem, well that and consistency.

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  20. MM – The size of the margins depend on the quality of each side. We have brought in some high quality players to add to the high quality we already had, which the likes of Swansea and Southampton would love to have. We have gotten rid of players whom we considered inferior, Routledge being a typical example, that clubs like Swansea use to good effect.

    I agree there are no easy games but we should be expecting to beat teams like Swansea and Southampton over the course of 90 minutes. It won’t always be the case because luck plays some part, but the better teams soon rise to the top. We may have battered Swansea at times but they battered us for long periods of the first half as I understand it. (I missed the first 30 and only got it on the radio.)

    We weren’t too convincing against Southampton through defensive frailties but got a bit of luck. Defensive frailties cost us at Swansea. Defensive frailties were a pattern of the first half of the season.

    If you can put aside loyalties, how many of Swansea’s or Southampton’s players would you have swapped for ours before the start of each game?

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  21. Do Anzhi usually play on an artificial pitch at their proper home? I’m guessing they do as even while its miles south they still probably have pretty bad winters. Defo gives them an advantage.

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  24. Ice
    I know how to fix it, I’m just not trying 😕 😆 , there’s not much hope for my generation is there? We’re too lazy. I blame the time of the year, I’m a lot more active when spring comes around and I plan to try out for the uni football team so will hone my stamina and skills 😎 .

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  28. Dave @ 100 – Leave things till the last minute and they only take a minute to do. 😛

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  29. I don’t consider myself to be patriotic but, for some reason, I always find myself wanting English teams to win in Europe – even ManU. Of course, I lose no sleep when they get beat.

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  31. I’ll never find out how I would feel about Sunderland in Europe! 😆

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  32. Dave – It doesn’t matter what time we have to set off for the kids’ footie, we’re always ten minutes late to set off and have to tank it. The one and only time I can recall when we set off with loads of time and enjoyed a leisurely drive on a Sunday morning, we realised ten minutes before we got there that the clocks had gone back an hour. I had to tank the last ten and the bairn missed the first 20 minutes! 😳 🙄

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  33. Dave
    It’s a bit dark outside 😉 my garden in the middle of the Scottish countryside isn’t floodlit 😆

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  34. My dad and I are heading down on Saturday for the match on Sunday, that means… beach football :mrgreen:

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  36. ANDYMAG @35
    It’s an eighty thousand seat stadium mate, doubt they will have some cheap *** pitch. 🙂

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  39. This one looks very hard and could be the defining game of our season.

    Not the biggest fan of the Europa league at the moment especially since our league position is precarious and we have big games coming up. Every game from now till the end in very big. There are easy games for in the league but not for NUFC. Risking any of the new players who are pretty much the driving force moving us forward is a concern particularly Sissoko

    On a lighter note, Pardew must be in a kid in a candy store he has his pick of excuses tonight.

    -Artificial pitch
    -HBA just returning from injury and not match fit
    -Weather
    -Wealthier club
    -Eto

    Some he will leave the fans to make for him;

    -Shola
    -Williamson
    -Ba
    -Simpson
    -Michael12 😆

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  40. peeing down here in Bristol ,bloody wretched weather, just when the sunshine had lifted my spirits 🙄 Ah well better hope for a Toon win then ,would settle for a couple of away goals if we can’t win though 😉 . Off out in this downpour now , back later if I ain’t drowned.

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  41. Micheal @114 you can cross off the pitch as Pards has already stated that it will suit our more technical players and you can cross off Ba as he left us in January you know 😆

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  42. @Kimtoon, you think Pardew will not retract that if we are beaten handsomely?

    All it takes is for him to redefine who are our technical players and before you know it all our technical players will be the ones he did not pick for the game.

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  44. Think tonight is going to be a step up in class. Anzhi are a good side. If we can keep the tie alive tonight we have a chance at St James Park. Be easier said than done tho!! And on a personal note this be my first game I’ve been able to watch of our European adventure. Thank you itv4!!!!

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  46. Aussie thats the spirit mate 😉 where have you been hiding I was asking about you the other day but no one knew what happened you, you weren’t being bullied were you 😀

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  47. Been away on a golf trip and have been busy mate. I made sure I wore the stab proof vest that Ice sent me while I was away. 🙂

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  48. No big Dave. Cabaye has been very good for us since his return.

    Unless his baby is ill or wife is pregnant again of nani’s red card is still affecting him cannot see Why Cabaye cannot perform at the current highs he is at the moment. Unless you can think of a legitimate reason why he should not such as the unlucky loss we suffered at Swansea or the fact that Sunderland is above us all legitimate by the way.

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  49. I couldn’t deal with all the negativity from Richie and Newkie either, it was better to stay away… 🙂

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  50. Aussie you didn’t need the vest mate Ice had your back but I was too busy to help 😕
    So how did the golf go is it still your handicap 😆

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  51. BD, I found out my swing problem late into the games mate. I was standing too close to the ball…………after I hit it 🙂 🙂 Ice is always looking out for everyone on here 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  52. Funny Aussie I said the other night that some of the neggers on here over the last week has made Troy and I seem like the dreamers.
    There is some right whingy fukers about

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  53. BigDave – some? Think that’s two you’re talking about. Who are they going to pick on if we actually win something?

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  54. AMF send for DAVE mate he will give you a few pointers on golf he got joey playing well 😀 richie is hopeless at golf he cannot get past the club house

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  58. Ice, Richies’ big gut keeps getting stuck in his back swing mate, that’s his problem 🙂 🙂 BD, I’ve seen those whingers on here mate.. sad.

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  62. Batts he’ll need more than BB 😉

    Ice thats a problem the club has caused once they let HBA go back to France for treatment.
    These guys are part of a team so should stay as part of the team and get treatment here unless we can’t provide treatment.

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  64. Have you made him scream like a ***** Batty?? 🙂 🙂 🙂 why I never 🙂 🙂

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  68. BBC are reporting Colo’s probably out for the season with 2 broken bones in his back. No treatment possible and he’s away to Argentina. Might never see him again if that’s true.
    Now we’ll see how good Mbiwa is.

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  70. @Batty: That is also possibly another Pardew excuse right there

    Racist chanting lost our team the game.

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  73. AMF- just got back from a golf holiday myself. How did you hit ’em? Always wanted to take a golf trip to the Melbourne area but I’d have to sell my house to afford it 😉

    Strange news regarding Collo. I think the next story will be “Contract Terminated by Mutual Consent” 😐

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