Game On! Newcastle v FC Anzhi Makhachkala

toonsy

Another European night at St James' Park
Another European night at St James’ Park
A place in the last eight of the Europa League is on offer this evening as Newcastle United take on Anzhi Makhachkala of Russia in this second leg Round of 16 tie.

With the tie balanced at 0-0 following the stalemate in Moscow it’s all still to play for and neither team is out of the running.

The presence of away goals is dangerous one and no doubt Amzhi will be looking to exploit that so we have to keep things tight at the back. Having said that, we still need to score if we are to make sure that it’s us who progresses to the next round so we can’t “park the bus” and will need to push forward ourselves which could leave holes for a rather threatening Anzhi attack to exploit.

Another interesting balancing act is the need to progress tonight whilst keeping one eye on our fixture against Wigan on Sunday. Granted we don’t have a 4,000 mile round trip to consider this time, but we still need to keep a degree of freshness in our side ready for a trip to an in-form Wigan side. Some rotation may occur, but I still expect to see a strong side picked.

For a more detailed look at the fixture, including injury news for both sides, some facts and stats and some random thoughts about the match itself, why not take a look at my match preview, which is online here, if you haven’t already had a peek at it.

The game will be live in the UK on ESPN so if you can’t make it to the ground then don’t worry. If you haven’t got ESPN then a whole host of overseas broadcasters are showing the match so picking up a stream shouldn’t be a problem. Once again guys, if you do find a good stream then by all means feel free to share it by posting a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below.

I should have been home tonight but I’ve been exiled in Europe for an extra 24 hours due to the snow and travel conditions which means I’m not around to add the team news in. However, Big Dave is and will add it in at the bottom of this article as soon as he can.

I think that’s just about all of it covered and we can leave the rest of the story which will unfold this evening up to the players and manager at St James’ Park. Hopefully we’ll be talking about the match for the right reasons at full-time and can look forward to who we might be facing in the Quarter Finals of the Europa League.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Elliot; Santon, S.Taylor, Yanga-Mbiwa, Haidara; Anita, Tiote, Cabaye (c); Marveaux, Cisse, Sissoko.

Subs: Harper, Perch, Bigirimana, Obertan, Gutierrez, Campbell, Shola Ameobi.

FC Anzhi Makhachkala: Gabulov; Eschenko, Ewerton, Joao Carlos, Zhirkov; Jucilei, Ahmedov, Diarra; Boussoufa, Eto’o, Carcela-Gonzalez.

Subs: Pomazan, Agalarov, Tagirbekov, Shatov, Logashov, Traore, Smolov.

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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480 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v FC Anzhi Makhachkala”

  1. Waaahhhhaayyy get in what a result. Well done Cisse. Taylor and Marv great tonight. Have you ever seen a mackem in Milan?????

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  5. Rob Lee is dead on there–it’s all about service for Cisse. Who’s the stats master? I wonder how many chances he actually has got lately.

    Marveaux, boy, looking good now. Frustrating sometimes, maybe, but if he improves his consistency he will be giving Pardew a major headache.

    2nd half we were so much better, even before the 2nd yellow.

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  8. Papiss’ english has improved an awful lot alright.

    Pity they didn’t ask Pards about cabaye

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  10. I’m a bit pissed off that Spurs and Chelsea are through as I think they’re a really big threat to us winning.

    Hopefully they’ll draw each each and one of them get knocked out in the Semi’s.

    Not a great performance but great result.

    Dare we dream?

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  11. Yeah, Kim, he did great. I love that he just copped and said “sorry, I don’t understand.” Ha!

    I disagree, Michael. I thought Papiss did all he could be asked to do–I don’t remember him even getting another chance. His all around play tonight was really good, wasn’t it?

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  14. Yeah, what about Cabaye?

    To be honest, I thought we improved a lot when he came off. Was the injury an issue for him early on and they thought he might be able to play injured? Cause he didn’t seem him self.

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  19. I’m with you, Kim, except I think service of virtually any kind and he’ll score. He can shoot with both feet head the ball well too. If we feed him, he will score.

    As for Mackems in Milan, no, but Spuds, boy have we. I’d feel bad for Inter’s fans… if they hadn’t been racially abusing teams lately. Douchebags…

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  20. Fans ,It may of been playing on his mind from the start ,It’s like early season when he was below par then we learned he had a groin problem.

    Have to say I’m well pissed off about Chelsea ,hate the fact that ex Champion league teams get a second bite of the cherry . Hope we go all the way play them and whip they’re money bags ****.

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  21. Question on Chelsea…is Ba “cup tied” for Europa? If we had to play them again, would Ba feature or no?

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  22. Taylor was excellent tonight, it’s true. I keep hoping he’ll be our guy to score from a corner… he’s got some goals from corners before, right?

    Boy, and Chelsea pulverized Steaua, it looks like, but what fucking voodoo curse is on Torres? He scores that beauty and missed the penalty, and then he busts a nose bleed. Are the gods against him? Jeez.

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  23. Can’t believe that Saylor AND Shawcross were overlooked for England 😡 , both are better than Cahill and Smalling (incredibly overrated) and are in more pristine condition than rio.

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  26. Batts Tayor was my MOTM and was a rock tonight, Im just glad Pards didn’t listen to TLR and loan Cisse out to a championship side 😀

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  27. lads how good is marveaux when hes on form like tonight. creates so much more than our other players, he needs to be one of the first names on the team sheet seeing as we often struggle to break teams down…MOM for me without a doubt! great to go through against a good side, but we will struggle to go any further if we dont buck up our idea in the final third

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  28. How do we explain Anzhi’s superiority in the 1st half? Pards said he switched to 4-4-2 in the 2nd and thinks that helped. What did you all see? I thought their midfield overran ours but we actually played better with Jonas on for Cabaye. Is that coincidence? Was Cabaye injured from the get-go?Did Jonas come on a new formation started?

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  29. Also a special mention to Pardew who over both legs got the of Hiddink. Hands down.

    I am a vicious critic when he gets it wrong and when he gets it wrong I must also in equal measure give him his dues. He played the long game something I did not think he had in his closet.

    Credit to where it is deserved he played some good and patient stuff. Anjin like stoke began to relax around Cisse as he did not look like scoring and credit to him he played every single second of that game and did not for a minute begin to think of the extra time.

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  30. Stu – I hope we draw one of them – only way we’ll get on council tele 🙄 😆

    Taylor was a rock tonight, but because of my critisism of him earlier in the season I’m gonna salute Marveaux for his performance tonight – outstanding for me – not only do I now say keep the kid in summer but I’d like to see him in the team more regularly as he clearly has that ‘je ne sais quoi’ we often lack and I reckon there’s a certain centre forward who would be happy to see him in the team.

    Hats off to you boys – really well done, and you Pardew – but get a bloody shave man 😉

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  31. Best scenario
    Spurs draw Chelsea, go through but Bale gets sent off/injured, they then get knocked out in the semis whilst we draw a couple of easy teams and win the final :mrgreen:

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  32. FSOTC
    The difference from the 1st half to the 2nd was the first was hoofball the second was silky ground football.

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  33. Andy I wouldn’t mind playing Chelsea in the final ,love to take the smirk off JT and Romans face and can you imagine what Ba would think too 😆

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  34. @Buddy

    He didn’t really create much tonight. He had a few shitty long shots and one super cross. His dribbling was awesome most of the time and him and Santon linked up well after half time. His decision making is very poor. So many times he tries to take on one to many players and loses it.

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  35. Cisse did all you can ask and scored his only chance. I thought his build up was average, but the same could be said for many of our players. I think Sissoko still struggles to find the right pass at times, but hey, still young and fresh. We can attack top 4 next season with a gelled squad :mrgreen:

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  37. What a result. Can’t speak now from shouting after the goal. Steven Taylor defo MOTM for me. He was right behind Cisse when Cisse scored ready to put it in if Cisse missed. Can’t believe he is still being overlooked for England

    Great result! Just hope we can avoid Spurs n Chelsea now.

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  38. Cheers, Kim. I thought so too, but wasn’t 100% sure.

    MDS, if you’re reading, signed up for Foxsoccer2go.com on your mention of it last season. I love being able to watch these games while at work. I am not sure my clients and boss would appreciate that though… :mrgreen:

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  39. Kim
    Winning it against them would be amazing but imagine how unbearable it would be to lose to them in the final and constantly hear about it in the press and see the winning goal played over and over again 😕 . Would much rather play Lazio or Basel…

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  40. I thought both Marveaux and Santon should have mixed it up a little more and not run at players every time they got the ball, but they’re both young too and hopefully they can add that variety that will keep defenses guessing and create more openings.

    How about M’Biwa? One shaky moment aside (that I can recall) he seemed very good tonight too.

    On Cisse, over the last 12 games, which is the time since Ba departed, he’s got 5 goals on the paper. If you count that one that was wrongly disallowed against Metalheads Kharkiv, it’s 6 in 12 and he’s back to his historical ratio of 1 in 2 games. Long may it continue… or improve.

    And, by the way, Marveaux is our top assists provider with 4.

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  41. Andy ,I dunno better the devil ya know I say and it would be great to shove it in the face of the london hacks.

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  42. FSOTC-Marv is 26/27 mate! Almost an OAP! 😀

    Find it tough to call a MOTM, probably go for tayls although I thought Marv and Mbiwa were close seconds. Funny how our defence seems to have improved without Colo…even with mix ups obvious (like that one taylor let bounce when he pointed to Mbiwa, who was watching a different man!) Santon is not a right back-his best play comes from getting forward and cutting in and he just can’t manage it. Maybe he will with time but I don’t agree with those who call for him to play there long term, not sure it would improve his defence that much. It’s not the tackle he is poor in, it’s tracking back and positioning, which I don’t relate to which foot your using…

    Haidara though, he looks really solid, another graham carr special hopefully!

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  44. I’d rather avoid the british teams, it doesn’t really make it feel like “Europe”, would have liked to have play Inter tbh but there we go. **** it, don’t care who we play as long as we win 😆

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  46. Tim Krul ‏@TimKrul
    Fantastic result.. Quarter final here we come.. Happy days #TellMiMaMiMa

    Absolute legend!

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  47. FSOTC-No worries mate, there’s a lad in work who thinks he’s 21, I don’t have the heart to tell him he’s so old. Guess he looks young as he’s a bit of a midget.

    Speaking of youngsters though glad to see Campbell got a run out, not sure if its just because he’s small but he looks like he’s rapid…probably wouldn’t match up against Sissoko like but he might be a little bit of an improvement on Shola….. 😀

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  48. Andy – do you reckon the difference in the style of footy from 1st to 2nd half was Pard at half time then mate – ‘get it down and play football and we can beat these’ type speech?.

    The other thing from tonight I wanted to mention was that I didn’t rate Santon at RB. I know it’s only 1 game but he certainly didn’t look comfortable of natural there at all. Couple that with the fact I thought Haidara had another excellent game and I’m not sure that Santon would fit into my strongest 11 at the moment like.

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  49. Sharpy I agree about Santon, I said during the game that that was his quietest game yet he just doesn’t seem like the same player on the right.

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  50. @Santi,
    sorry i suppose he didnt create many clear cut chances tonight but he was our main attacking outlet and offered more in the final third than the rest of the team put together. I would put him behind only HBA and Moussa in terms of the confidence i have in him to create goals and goalscoring chances

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  51. cracking result. i was dreading extra time.

    Tiote had a better game… (just) but still remains a liability at the back.

    how tiny is Campbell? he makes Marv look like high tower from police academy 😛

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  53. @Mark did you see the size of the referee? I don’t think Campbell came up to his waist 😀

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  54. I see the new Pope is a supporter of Argentine side, San Lorenzo. Maybe he’ll try to get God to have some say in the transfer business with Colo.

    GOD: “Hello, Mike? I’m pulling a favor for my new shepherd and I really think you need to let Colo move over to San Lorenzo…on the cheap.”
    MIKE: “What are you gonna do for me, like?”
    GOD: “How’s the Europa Cup sound?”
    MIKE: “Nah, I think we’ve got the covered on our own, thanks. Got anything else?”
    GOD: “I didn’t want to do this, but how about I don’t go Old Testament on you and yours and DON’T turn you into pillars of salt?”
    MIKE: “Fine…such an ******…”

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  55. Santon has played RB there a few times now, at least 4 matches that I’ve seen, and he’s been poor going forward in every one of them. Defensively there’s probably little difference, but its clear he just does not fancy the cross, nor does he even look comfortable when heading forward. Maybe too much to think on as he can’t just cut in and think later? Leave him on the left I say…but Haidara definitely giving strong competition on these performances..

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  58. Steven Taylor was superhuman tonight. Must be the best game he’s ever played.

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  60. @Toby le rhone
    I will not say Jonas was amazing. Jonas was good but not amazing. I m one of his hatters. But this kind of player are so bad all the year so when they are slightly better people say they are amazing.
    I think this 2 words Jonas and Amazing cannot go together in the same sentence.
    By the way for me he is always better playing in a central role than as a winger where he is completely useless.

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  61. Now that we gone through to Q-final… the remaining teams going through Q-final are:

    Tottenham
    Chelsea
    Basel
    Benfica
    Lazio
    Rubin Kazan
    Fenerbahce

    Let’s pray to all sorts of god that we get either FC Basel or Rubin, ensuring Spurs get maybe Lazio or Benfica. 😈 😈

    It might be an all-english final. I don’t mind chelsea in europa final with us. 😆 😆

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  63. Now for the reality check. We got ravaged down our left. Haidara had a mare IMO. It must have looked different on TV given the comments on here. Tiote and Anita were poor too and both were too often out-muscled. Cisse’s general play was suspect again, not least his first touch; I’m guessing his reaction on scoring was telling a story. What was that about?

    I can’t see us progressing now. The main problem is Pards’ game plan. I just don’t get it. We get ten men behind the ball and play so much of the game on the back foot, which means when we get possession and try to attack, we’re sitting too deep. To be fair to Cisse, he’s always outnumbered.

    When they went down to ten men, Pards put Campbell on but played him left midfield! Surely, the kid had to be upfront alongside Cisse, sitting on the shoulder of the last man and running across the line.

    Pards’ game plan is just far too cautious for our own good. At least he’s eventually making the right choices on personnel: Marv, Shola, Obertan, Perch and Jonas. The mystery is why it has taken so long for the penny to drop.

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  64. Elliot 6.5
    Hairdryer 8
    Mbiwa 8
    Saylor 9
    Santon 6.5
    Jonas 8
    Marv 9
    Tiote 6.5
    Sissoko 6.5
    Anita 6.5
    Cisse 7

    Cabaye 4
    Cambell 5

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  67. MDS
    As much as we all love Taylor he’s too stupid to be captain, wears his heart on his sleeve and would get in trouble too often. It’s a crime that Hodgson ignored him for the upcoming matches, they are frickin friendlies Roy, experiment with the team and see whether Shawcross and Taylor are better than the racist ****** and the old man.

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  68. Either Stuttgart is **** or Lazio are beast, either way I’d rather we didn’t draw them or an English team, Basel or Fenebache would be good, or even benfica would be fun to see.

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  69. Andy. the man is playing the football of his life, all guts and glory, and is a local lad. What more do we need really

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  70. Oh what a night, late December back in ’63…. doodoodooddoododdooo 🙂 Cisse…. last kick of 180 minutes. 🙂 Some player that Eto’o dude is. 🙂

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  72. Howay the lads, greetings from sunny Melbourne 🙂

    Phenomenal result, I hope we get a canny draw in the next round.

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  74. Three outstanding performances from Taylor, Cisse and Marveaux. Jonas did well too when he came on.

    Those rating Mbiwa in this game. He had a shocker for me! Had two Bramble moments that should have cost us two goals. Both times saved by Taylor.

    The boy has ability but he needs to cut out those moments of carelessness. Taylor has been the better of the two in every game they’ve been together so far. Although both have done very well.

    Elliot had another solid game. Is that four clean sheets for him? Very impressed.

    As usual, I completely disagree with Michael 12 that Cisse was poor until the goal. Clutching at straws at his bad judgement.
    Cisse was brilliant. Some of his take downs from long balls where superb.
    Little back heels and strong hold up play. He had an excellent game all round. I think Sissoko has a rare poor performance.

    Marveaux is so inconsistent. But my word in this game he was excellent. His delivery and crossing and running with the ball. All great on the night.
    Looked the only player who was ever going to unlock the Anzi defence and eventually did.

    Very happy with the win. Pard’s did good for me too. Well done all round.

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  75. @MDS
    Two reasons:
    Firstly, a few weeks ago most expected Yanga – Colo to be the first choice pairing.
    Secondly, just wikipedia the number of performances he has made over the past 4 seasons. Too injury prone.

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