Shola keeps Europa dream alive! Metalist Kharkiv 0-1 Newcastle (0-1 agg)

Sho does his business!
Sho does his business!
Newcastle stood up to a tough test in Ukraine last night earning only their second away victory in all competitions this season.

Shola Ameobi did what he does better than most players on the planet and converted yet another penalty to keep his spot-kick streak going and United’s Europa League adventure alive.

However Shola shouldn’t be the only one to take some plaudits and at the other end of the pitch Tim Krul more than earned his corn with a succession of fine saves to keep United in with a shout of reaching the last 16. The fact he left the ground on crutches though is not good news and hopefully scans scheduled for when he returns to Tyneside show no lasting issues that could affect his presence in the league.

Newcastle started the match brightly and took control of the early exchanges without really threatening the Metalist goal and had to make do with half chances and nearly moments. Shola Ameobi nearly setup Moussa Sissoko in the opening two minutes but the former Toulouse man was unable to get on the end of Shola’s pass.

Sissoko had another effort on 15 minutes but his shot flew straight at the Metalist ‘keeper before Ameobi saw another effort deflected wide of the Kharkiv goal. United had the game under control and it took the home side 28 minutes to muster their first meaningful attack but Jonathan Cristaldo shot wide of Tim Krul’s goal.

Just before half-time Papiss Cisse had the best chance of the game so far after being played in by Shola Ameobi only to see Goryainov – who denied Cisse three times in the first leg – once again equal to his effort at goal.

Half-time: Metalist Kharkiv 0-0 Newcastle

Eleven minutes into the second-half United had probably their best chance of the game after Sylvain Marveaux and Moussa Sissoko exchanged passes giving Marveaux the chance to find the back of the net or set up a team mate. He did neither as his shot flew over the bar when squaring for Ameobi would have more than likely resulted in a goal.

Yohan Cabaye played in Sissoko on the hour mark but he was unable to shrug off the attention of Metalist defenders and shot harmlessly wide. Just three minutes later though Sissoko was in place to capitalise on a poor back pass from Papa Gueye. Sissoko stormed into the penalty area and was brought down by Goryainov resulting in the award of a penalty which Shola duly struck home sending the goalkeeper the wrong way in the process.

Then came the Tim Krul show as the home side turned on the pressure in an attempt to avoid elimination from the competition. Knowing that they now needed two goals to progress Metalist made some attacking substitutions and put us under pressure, arguably for the first sustained amount of time of the night.

No matter, not when Tim Krul is in the kind of form he was. First he pulled off a double save to deny Cristaldo before James Perch cropped up to clear off the line when Krul looked beaten. Willian was the next to be denied when Krul pushed his header onto the post and in the end the United defence held firm and claimed the result which will see through to the next round.

Full-time: Metalist Kharkiv 0-1 Newcastle

In the next round we will face FC Anzhi Makhachkala (who will now be called ‘Angie’ on here to keep it easy!) of Russia after they defeated Bundesliga outfit Hannover 96 4-2 over the course of their two-legged encounter. The first leg will be played at Dynamo Stadium on Thursday 7th March with the return leg at St James’ Park being played on Thursday 14th March.

Back to the match, I’m glad we’ve gone through but I hope my worst fears haven’t come true and we’ve not lost Tim Krul to injury for a length of time. Yohan Cabaye apparently also picked up a knock and with Cheik Tiote succumbing to illness prior to the match the very last thing we need to see now is our injury starting to grow again.

All eyes will turn to Southampton now where, for me anyway, getting a result is even more important than the one we got last night. Win against the Saints and all is well. We start to pull away from the bottom clubs and can worry less about relegation and start to focus more on the Europa League. Lose though, and we’re back to square one rendering the result last night almost worthless.

Howay the lads!

Metalist Kharkiv: Oleksandr Goryainov; Cristian Villagra, Papa Gueye, Marco Torsiglieri, Fininho; Juan Manuel Torres, Edmar; Marlos, Cleiton Xavier, Jose Sosa; Jonathan Cristaldo

Subs: Vladimir Disljenkovic, Andrey Berezovchuk, Oleg Shelayev, Sebastian Blanco, Jaja Coelho, Oleg Krasnoperov, Willian

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Fabricio Coloccini, Massadio Haidara; Vurnon Anita, Yohan Cabaye; Papiss Cisse, Moussa Sissoko, Sylvain Marveaux; Shola Ameobi

Subs: Rob Elliot, James Perch, Steven Taylor, Dan Gosling, Gael Bigirimana, Jonas Gutierrez, Gabriel Obertan

Attendance: 39,973

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.

199 thoughts on “Shola keeps Europa dream alive! Metalist Kharkiv 0-1 Newcastle (0-1 agg)

  1. Santi, I know mate, all the Russian teams are swanning around in europe enjoying the winter break, and keeping up to speed playing occasional Europa League games…

    Traore is 12′-7″ apparently and needs to be kept an eye on. Eto I’m not so worried about, I think his best days are behind him.

    Andymag, I didn’t see the game mate, I was just reading the report in the German media about the game. Everyone was disappointed that they didn’t take the chances in the game, then Anzi nicked an equaliser in the last minute. The damage was done in the game in Russia… 3-1

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  2. Tsunki@75, with our rock hard defence Elliot will have nowt to do at the weekend 😉

    Noticed yesterday that we tailed off again in the second half, inkeeping with our style of play to be honest. We looked worryingly tired at times in the second half, but young Timmy kept us in it. Cannot get it out of my mind that it has something to do with Pardew’s tactics, cannot put my finger on it though, maybe it is down to lack of general all-round fitness.

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  3. MM @78 i am sick of saying about lack of fitness in the team,think the pre-season was a **** up too which would not help,you know what they say about starting slow you never catch up and shows in your 2nd half

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  4. @78

    It annoys me to that. It seems we take the lead then just look to sit and counter teams but we sit far to deep and don’t really have the pace up front to do it effectively. When we do that i always think Obertan would be a good sub to bring on just for the fact he can beat most people for pace.

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  5. Andymag @79, aye I did mate, battered Arsenal they did too mate, and without Ribery too … I hope FC Bayern haven’t peaked too early, but I really fancy them this year…

    Ice you are dead right, wor lot are playing catch up on the finess stakes

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  6. MM
    Aye I said the same to my dad. Loads of hype around Man U v Real M, but the match I wanted to see was Munich v Barca (that was until they were **** v AC Milan).

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  7. JJ,

    I said ‘my mentality is that I don’t care if the striker gets one touch if that touch is a goal that wins the game he is beyond critiscm.”

    You said ‘we’ll I guess that’s where we disagree in our mentality’

    Now you seem to be going on about over the course of a season or something with ‘option one generally blah blah blah’

    Moreno: Clear and wants the job done
    JJ: Fannies about and gets nowhere

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  8. Tsunki
    I wouldn’t play in Russia as a black footballer for 4 times that, lose respect when players sell their soul for millions then get racially abused and act as if they didn’t expect it.

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  9. Sidekick 😆 😆

    Got to the second highest scorer of European goals in the clubs history with a hefty bank balance so aye he’s got no where!!!

    😆

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  10. Moreno;

    Yeah, he is made for life from his football career , no one can deny that and good luck to the lad.
    It does not change my opinion that he is not good enough for this level of football and is a waste of a squad number.

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  11. If we can beat the Russians, the heady scent of European silverware will fill the nostrils and the excitement will be manic.

    It’s funny how many people misspell Mbiwa.

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  12. Well, thats Gouffran and Krul out of the game on Sunday.

    We will probably not know if Cabaye and Sissoko are available until nearer kick off time to keep Southampton guessing.

    At least Mwiba 😆 is available.

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  13. Ice ; I may be wrong about Goofy , knew his injury would keep him out for a couple of weeks but it’s two weeks since he got injured.
    If he has been able to train this week he could well be available on Sunday.

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  14. Johno
    Saw the Taylor thing earlier, really deserves it, if not for injuries he’d probably be a regular. After Cahill’s ****-up I guess Hodgson is looking for alternatives. He was at WHL when Spurs beat us, apart from the last goal (which wasn’t solely his fault anyway) he had a good performance and got a good shot block in.

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  15. Our two weakest players last night were Marveux and Cisse yet these are who majority on here kepp saying should be starters

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  16. Santii; I was reliably informed that Cabaye has been having therapy for a knee injury for the past few weeks.

    He made a rash challenge for the ball last night ,over- extending his knee, resulting in him coming off. If it is the same knee then he must be a doubt for Sunday.
    Sissoko looked to have taken a few hard knocks last night and if this has resulted in even a slight injury then he may not have the time to be fit for Sunday.

    Anyway, don’t take too much notice of me , I’m just having a negative week. 🙁

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  17. The problem with that argument, Moreno, is that Shola is like neither of the strikers you describe.
    Normally, he doesn’t do much for the team and he doesn’t score goals.

    He was actually ok the other night for a change but if Sissoko hadn’t got us the penalty, Ameobi wouldn’t have looked like coming close to scoring all night.

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  18. TLR – Marv wasn’t weak last night.

    Sidekick – You misspelt Mbiwia 😆 The name’s only got a few letters too! 🙄

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  19. TLR & Andymag;

    In defence of B&B , and I’m sure Moreno will agree, Shola made Marv look good last night.

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  20. Sidekick
    Shola’s penalty won us the game so he’s untouchable with regard to this game. Doesn’t change my general opinion of him but a player played well if he won you the game.

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  21. AMAG – He scored a penalty that he was never going to make; someone else was always going to have to make it for him. Shola has no footballing brain. How many times does he end up turning attack into defence by continual needless fouls and offsides? 👿

    Sidey – Yes, Shola made Marv look bloody good. I think what people must miss about Marv is that he is so comfortable on the ball that we play more calmly and keep more possession when he plays. He’s also a threat. He was just getting into his stride when pards pulled the rug from under his feet, and failed to stick with him. 🙄

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  22. Even if he didn’t score that goal, Ameobi was our best attacking player last night.

    and B&B who are you kidding Marv was woeful last night. 😀

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  23. Santii – Ameobi! Who are you kidding Ameobi was our best attacking player! Sissoko was MOTM. Ameobi couldn’t tie Sissoko’s boot laces. And Marv was definitely not woeful.

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  24. Sissoko had a few good moments but nothing special. Motm you are having a laugh mate.

    Yes he was. Hopefully Gouffran will be back for the saints game to put Marv back in his rightful place…. The bench.

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  25. Ridiculous! Take Sissoko out and we don’t win that game IMO. Krul a very close second.

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  26. B&B and Pootle are right imo.

    I don’t get why Marv is being slated for his performance, yet Shola is getting praise. Makes no sense to me at all. Shola wasn’t great as a front man and didn’t really get himself in a position to score a goal all night…Well, unless you count walking up to the spot 😆

    Marveaux didn’t contribute too much going forward yesterday and I was slightly disappointed in his performance overall, but he was not at all “poor”. He kept possession well, put himself in a position to receive the ball all of the time and worked hard to help his fullback defensively.

    As B&B says, Marveaux is a calming presence in the team as he always looks to bring the ball down and play.

    I also agree with those that say Sissoko was our MOTM. Pretty much everything good we’ve done in our last 5 or so games has come through him. He’s probably the most important signing we’ve made in years. If Cisse’s 1st goal wasn’t incorrectly ruled out in the first leg v Metalist Sissoko would have scored or assisted in every game he’d featured in since joining.

    Just absorb that for a moment…

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  27. Ameobi! Best attacking player! 😯 😆 😆 😆 In the style of Alan Sugar’s Claude Littner. He was not our “best attacking player”; he was not even a “player”! 😆

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  28. B&B
    Take Krul out and we would’ve lost by a couple of goals.
    The kid
    Agree that Marv is good at keeping the ball down but he makes poor decisions and is very greedy taking on players or shots when he could pass or control it.

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  29. The Kid @ 121 – At last some common sense on here. 😉 Until you came on I thought I’d entered a parallel universe where Shola Ameobi was Didier Drogba! 😆 😆 😆

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  30. MAGS @ 123 – Perhaps. As I say, a very close second.

    Your criticisms of Marv could equally apply to HBA. It’s sometimes the price of trying to conjure a breakthrough, which lesser players would never attempt.

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  31. B&B
    Hatem for all his ego is more of a team player than Marv and is a hell of a lot more successful. Hatem has the second most successful dribbles in Europe.

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  32. Santii

    With all due respect, football fans are fickle and the fact Shola scored the winning goal would have had a massive effect on votes. Thing is, take the penalty out of that game and I bet most people on here praising Shola would instead be slating him.

    B&B

    I’m not sure I was watching the same game as some on here. I even read someone say Marv isn’t fit to lace Jonas’ boots 😯

    Madness

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  33. Santii – I’m not rising to that one @ 126. I ceased to take you seriously a while back. 😉 😆

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  34. The truth is, Moreno’s first manager actually said ‘Lad stop playing with your balls and score us a goal” 🙂 🙂 🙂
    I do agree with him tho, the best strikers I played against were the ones that I would keep quiet for nearly the whole game and the moment I switched off or they got 1/2 a chance, they would put it the back of the net.
    However, taking a pen requires nerves of steel but you don’t need any real skill to put your hand up a say ‘ I’ll take it” 🙂

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  35. The kid
    Of course if he hasn’t gotten us the goal people wouldn’t have been happy with his performance. It’s not that people are suggesting that he had the metalist defence in his pocket, just that when he was required of he filled his strikers’ duty. We won as a result of his goal and so he is a star but not MOTM that falls to Krul as he was top class.

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  36. @The Kid

    Nearly every chance we created up until the goal was through Shola. If Marv had passed across the goal instead of being a useless greedy **** 😀 we would have scored earlier than the pen. Sissoko also lost the ball alot but made up for with a few class moments.

    I wonder did you watch the game. Marv lost the ball every time he tried to run with it and offered no help to Haidara in defense. Just cause he doesn’t hoof the ball doesn’t make him a good player he does nothing with it most of the time. B&B Comparing him to HBA is a joke aswell. Marv wishes he had a fraction of his talent. He isn’t much better than Jonas though. Thank god for Gouffran

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  37. MAGS @ 128 – Not sure Benny is more of a “team player” than Marv as they play a similar role in a similar way. However, I agree that he is a “hell of a lot more successful”, which makes my point. IMO Benny is our most talented player but he gets even more misguided criticism for, as you put it, being “very greedy taking on players or shots when he could pass…”

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  38. Santii – I wonder did you watch the game? Did Haidara acquit himself well and look safe? Did Metallist get past him and find a way in down their right to cause us a threat?

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  39. B&B
    I rarely hear Benny get criticism for his runs, he’s generally pretty successful with them and you know that he’s likely to do something interesting whenever he gets the ball. Marv on the other hand ponders to long, makes the wrong choice and will do something unnecessary.

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  40. Santii – I compared criticisms of Marv to criticisms of Benny. It is one point only: that Benny too gets criticised for being “very greedy taking on players or shots when he could pass…”, a criticism that shows a complete lack of appreciation for their game. How is making that point a joke?

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  41. BB yeah he looks a cracking young player. The one time metalist did get through though was when Haidara passed to Marv who miskicked it and fell on his ****, leaving there player with acres to run into. Which led to Tim Kruls first great save if i remember correctly 🙄 😳

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  42. MAGS – Benny used to get loads of criticism for it and still gets some; following his comeback, it was widely felt that he was trying too hard to impress.

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  43. B&B
    Remember it when he initially arrived and people didn’t know what to expect (we still don’t sometimes) they thought he was greedy but now they are always on the edge of their seat, grin on their face when he gets the ball. I’ll take your word for it though on recent criticism as some people can’t be happy with a players performance.

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  44. Santii @ 138 – So if Metalist didn’t get through past Haidara, either Marv was helping him or he didn’t need any help. Which is it? Or is there an alternative?

    As for Marv miskicking the ball and presenting them with a good chance, that was a right mishap and almost as memorable as Shola’s pen. Both pieces of action leave lasting impressions and colour some people’s views of the whole 90. Besides, name me one player that doesn’t miskick a ball and nearly cost us. Krul is the first one to come my mind.

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  45. Santii

    “Marv lost the ball every time he tried to run with it and offered no help to Haidara in defense.”

    Sorry, but that just isn’t true. Marv and Cabaye were the two best non-defenders in terms of defensive contribution, with both making 7 clearances. Cabaye made a lot more interceptions (9 to Marv’s 1), but that’s probably to be expected with the position he plays.

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  46. You really are clutching at straws lol Marv was our worst player last night without a doubt. Krul was motm without a doubt and Ameobi won us the game without a doubt 😀

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  47. The Kid – This game was all about one penalty conversion and one slice of a ball. 😯

    Santii – When Marv sliced it, where was he and who was he trying to help? But according to you, he “offered no help to Haidara in defense”.

    “Nearly every chance we created up until the goal was through Shola.” classic! 😆 😆 😆 😆 😳

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  48. Santii – Again, if Metalist didn’t get through past Haidara, either Marv was helping him or he didn’t need any help from Marv. Which is it? Or is there an alternative?

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  49. Santii

    “You really are clutching at straws lol Marv was our worst player last night without a doubt. Krul was motm without a doubt and Ameobi won us the game without a doubt ”

    I wouldn’t really call using hard stats to back my point up “clutching at straws”…

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