Game On! FC Anzhi Makhachkala v Newcastle

The Luzhniki Stadium
A home from home – The Luzhniki Stadium

Newcastle travel to Moscow this evening where they will contest the first leg of a two-legged Round of 16 Europa League tie with FC Anzhi Makhachkala.

United will need to be at their best to get anything against an outfit who has had little trouble getting results at home. Armed with an array of attacking talent, Guss Hiddink will be looking for his side to grab something to protect at St James’ Park for the second leg.

In the match preview (which you can read here) it was revealed that Papiss Cisse was doubtful with an illness which has subsequently ruled him out of the game and he has been left on Tyneside to hopefully recover for the visit of Stoke on Sunday. Adam Campbell will replace him leaving a 19-man matchday squad that looks a bit like this:

Rob Elliot, Jak Alnwick, Danny Simpson, Davide Santon, Massadio Haidara, Steven Taylor, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, James Perch, Cheick Tiote, Gael Bigirimana, Yohan Cabaye, Vurnon Anita, Hatem Ben Arfa, Dan Gosling, Sylvain Marveaux, Gabriel Obertan, Moussa Sissoko, Shola Ameobi, Adam Campbell

So a team will need to be picked out of that lot. Personally I don’t think there will be too many surprises and we can pretty much all get close to naming the team that will play. For confirmation purposes though, team news will be published below as and when it becomes available.

We are live on ITV4 this evening, presumably now Liverpool have been eliminated, so there is no excuse to miss the match providing you’re at home and have access to a TV. However some people don’t have TV’s or won’t be at home or don’t live in the UK so can’t get ITV4 so streams will still be needed. I don’t see an issue with picking one up though so if you do find one then by all means feel free to share it with your fellow NUFC fans by leaving a link in the ‘comments’ section below.

Which just about wraps this up and leaves us with the football to talk about. Hopefully we’re talking about it in a positive light come 7pm.

Howay the lads!

Anzhi Makhachkala: Gabulov, Eschenko, Joao Carlos, Zhirkov, Ewerton, Jucilei, Shatov, Ahmedov, L. Diarra, Willian, Eto’o

Subs: Pomazan, Tagirbekov, Logashov, Gadzhibekov, Carcela-Gonzalez, Traore, Smolov.

Newcastle: Elliot – Simpson, Yanga-Mbiwa, Perch, Haidara – Anita, Cabaye- Marveaux, Sissoko, Obertan – Ben Arfa. (4-2-3-1)

Subs: Alnwick, Santon, S.Taylor, Bigirimana, Tiote, Shola Ameobi, Campbell.

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.

247 thoughts on “Game On! FC Anzhi Makhachkala v Newcastle

  1. Well, I missed the first 15 minutes but I use “miss” in the loosest sense of the word. Still, would be happy with a 0-0.

    I see Pards has us all fooled with his pre match talk, the mans a genius!!..

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  2. Munich – I’d agree with that, Simmo and Haidara got a lot of mention (rightly so) but Perch and Mapou have looked very solid too – 1 long distance Éto shot so far. Very pleasing.
    Obertan and Marv have been really disappointing for me – Oba in particular just seems to loose or give the ball way everytime he gets it – so frustrating. Oba off and Campbell on after say 60-70mins. An away goal would be great but 0-0 wouldn’t be terrible IMO.

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  3. Sharpy17, agree there mate, though Marveaux seems to be doing a lot defensively without creating much going forward. Obertan off after 70 mins I reckon, based on what he has done so far. At the same time we ‘ll probably see HBA coming off due to lack of match practice, and we don’t want to have him getting knackered.

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  4. Anzhi seem to want one touch too many on the ball, and are reluctant to take any risks with a killer pass. I like it 🙂

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  5. MM I agree about Benny coming off I think it would be a mistake to risk keeping him on the whole game but I really hope Campbell gets a decent chance as I think he would run them ragged

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  6. Munich – I’d take Benny off and put Tiote or Bigi on alongside Anita and push Cabaye further forward alongside Marv and Sissoko with Campbell up front.

    Really good save by Elliott there like!!!

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  7. obertan seems to of woken up, should of had him start playing at 4 o’clock

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  8. Shame Benny wasted our one good chance. Bit of a strange swap with Taylor for Anita, thought Anita was doin alright.

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  9. wtf Pardew can only lose with this substitution 😯 😯 Why disturb the centre of the defence ? I hope it doesn’t cost us 🙄

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  10. Di we have anyone who can take corners? Maybe Elliot would be better than all our outfield players 😆

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  11. Pards being a tad cautious maybe lads ,would of flung on Campbell and tried to snatch a goal.

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  12. Campbell could have been a good defensive move if anything, would probably work harder than Marv 😆

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  13. Marv and Oba the weak links tonight but not awful to be fair ,would of love to see Campbell for Oba for last10 mins.

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  14. I will try Haidara in place of Santon in one premier league games, really good. All the defense was good.

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  15. well done lads, good result…away goal would have been nice but ya can’t have everything :mrgreen:

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  16. Defensively this is the best we’ve played for some time IMO. Our shape has been solid all night.

    To re-address a couple of recent articles. The first being the one that highlighted the importance of squad players, well I think Simmo, Perch, Haidara, Elliott and Anita have all proven their worth tonight like.
    The 2nd being the one that questioned Pardews tactical no how, well again I’d suggest that tonight Pardew has got it pretty spot on with the players he had at his disposal to be fair.

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  17. Obertan was so poor first half but second half it was ok even if in the last passes he is **** always

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  18. but very difficult to create some goal chances in this kind of pitch. For the players who like to take on players and run with the ball, its so difficult to control the ball.. its why it was so boring game.

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