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. Pretty sure lovenkrance did a similar thing when someone on the street fancied his £30,000 watch 😆 😕 . Jesus imagine walking around the street with something on your wrist that cost more than many earn in a year.

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  2. Well played everyone and well done Pardew.

    Perch once again MoM. Getting to be a regular saying that one.
    Closely followed by Yanga.

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  3. Sharpy
    Think Sinclair cost them about that much and they never play him so I reckon £5m might get him, keen on Redmond and Phillips not on Ince though. Belhanda will cost that much but won’t be worth it so stay away, Siem will be £9m apparently which is very reasonable.
    Summer dealings
    Sakho – £4-5m
    Siem De Jong – £8-9m
    Pierre Emmerick Abaumeyang – £8m + Obertan/Marveaux
    Redmond/Phillips – £4-5m + loan Campbell to one of the clubs

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  4. I agree almost entirely with Andy’s player ratings.except for his Marv 5/6. I thought Marv showed good quality most of the time and deserved a 7. Like Anita, he was playing very well when Pards was giving him a decent run. It was like a spanner in the spokes, when he left them out and they now need time to bed in again.

    MOTM: MYM

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  5. How can Pards think that Oba and Shola are up to the job? It’s the same old ****. Oba is bloody clueless, and Shola simply gives away needless free kicks when he should be taking the pressure off. What the hell is Pards seeing cos I aint seeing it? He’s going to have to come up with something better than those two from here on in.

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  6. I simply cannot believe that campbell could not do a better job than Shola. 👿 What was he like when he got in the box, ball at his feet? 😳

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  7. Moreno
    Personally I believe the whole back 4 deserve the award together, held their line really well and each player shouldered the opposition out of play, clearing any lose ball. One solid unit. Granted Anzhi were **** in the final third that Traore guy can’t control it to save his life, bless him when he tried those step overs and the ball ended up behind him.

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  8. Thought the referee was excellent. Best I’ve seen in a long time.

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  9. About the best we could expect with no centre forward and Perch playing CB. Obertan was hopeless as usual going forward but came back and defended well a few times. Elliot was excellent as was the whole defense in fact. That Pardew played Perch instead of Willo was quite telling unless Willo was ill/injured? Perch at least has some pace.Ben Arfa definitely isn’t in match shape yet but tried hard. I was surprised Anzhi weren’t better. We shouldn’t get overconfident though as they have goals in them. Eto’o has quite the shot. Looks like Colo is out 3-7 weeks (more like 7 with 2 broken bones in his back) so let’s hope Saylor stays fit. We had virtually no attack in the first half. It clearly demonstrates our lack of depth at striker yet again. A few injuries and the cupboard is still bare at certain positions. Don’t go to sleep again in the summer Ash/Llam.

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  10. Have to give credit to Perch. He isn’t a CB and usually can’t defend high balls but he had a tremendous game. Mbiwa was first rate as well. I really like the look of Haidara. Very confident on the ball for his age.

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  11. Andy – I’m a big critic of Perch but he played well tonight, as did Elliott, Haidara and Simmo. I’ve always said Perch is a CB not a midfielder. I’m not quite sure what you can take from it though. I think you’ve mentioned it: they were poor, especially in the final third.

    It has to be said, we were just as bad in the final third. What a contrast to Spurs. They were thrilling! Bale, Dembele and Parker were class.

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  12. B&B
    Spurs are an in form side at the moment and Anzhi haven’t started the season after the winter break so its hard to compare them. I do agree that the tempo of the game was drastically different though. We were more attacking against spurs I believe, it is said we used 4231 tonight but I reckon it was more 460 or 424, the ‘forwards’ played very deep, Pardew went for a draw.

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  13. Sharpy-True mate, although Jan was probably knee **** in a sense, combined with the realisation they should have brought at least 2 of those (or other) bodies in during the summer. Wouldn’t expect much this summer-but who knows, would certainly welcome more fresh faces 😀

    Thought Simmo was a good player for us and could have made a good squaddie-however hairdryer looked a great prospect today so we’re not losing much and we’ll be able to tinker with Santon on the right perhaps, or at least have squad depth in both full back positions for once!

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  14. Newkie
    If Jan was knee **** then I can’t wait to see the club’s planned signings 😆

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  15. Moment of the match for me was when Perch outjumped their monster of a player (well, he didn’t really jump, but Perch beat him to the ball anyway) magic feet!

    B+B-I admire your commitment to Marv and I probably like him more than most, but I think you have to say he was not at the races today, didn’t make much impact. I remember more from Obertan, even if they were his **** ups… 😆

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  16. Andy-What I meant was the club was likely monitoring the lot of them (although not so sure on Gouffran-I imagine the club assumed Ba would not be in the form he was, and while he may have left he would obviously have been more willing to renegotiate with us if say, Cisse had 14 goals and he had 1 😆 … but maybe we were monitoring him) Hairdrier was obviously a graham carr special who the club probably planned to bring in at some point-but performances this season/the fact bringing him in with the other frenchies would help squad bonding and their PR.

    As for the others, like I said, pretty well known and we were likely monitoring them in an attempt to get them on the cheap-worked with Sissoko. But Mbiwa seemed a bit panicky, we flirted with needing a CB and did **** all to get one, as soon as they realised we were sliding to relegation they knew they needed to act.

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  17. Once we have another striker lined up, get young Campbell out on loan in the Championship to get him some match practice against the big lads. At the moment it’s maybe a bit too early for him, but his time will come.

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  18. Have to admit Pardew got the game straight and right. Impressed with his performance in that game. Not pretty but he got the tactics right for the game.

    Credit to him.

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  19. We can’t afford to send Campbell on loan. He is our only back up. He may not be good enough yet. We don’t know. What we do know is Shola isn’t good enough. We have nothing to lose by trying Cambell.

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  20. Great result and a good performance. We have a real chance of getting into quarter finals but the game is far from over. Thought mym and haideria played very well. Looks like they are settling in well.

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  21. Good tactics from Pards ( I know amazing eh!) and decent defensive display to set us up nicely for next week – obviously the idea was to sneak a goal and if HBA had been fitter he may well have scored.
    Still a decent result against a team who have won all home Europa games and only conceded one goal

    I’m amazed at Rob Elliot to be honest, he’s shown himself to be a decent keeper and is more than an able stand in for Krul, looks like we’ve picked up yet another bargain

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  22. Sharpy17@223, if it’s Kjaer from Wolfsburg you’re on about I’d stay well away from him. He’s useless…..

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