"War E Gem from the Toon!"
EUFA Cup
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
Zulte Waregem 1 Newcastle United 3
Newcastle look forward to the second leg of their UEFA cup tie against the minnows, Belgian side Zulta Waregem, following the very comfortable 3-1 victory in Gent.
Although the part-timers started off with some spirited play, Newcastle always appeared to be playing within themselves although it did take some time to net the important first goal. Even then it was an own-goal but the impressive Keiron Dyer deserves the credit because he made a great forward run and his low cross was hit with power to achieve the required deflection.
Newcastle's crisper passing and better movement ensured that they were always in the driving seat and the second goal duly arrived albeit via a slightly dubious penalty when Duff went down after going past the keeper. Surprisingly Solano allowed Martins the chance to atone for his "nightmare" penalty miss at Everton and he slotted home comfortably.
However, as always seems to be the way nowadays, Newcastle decided to allow Zulte back into the game! A ridiculously silly foul by Babayaro gave the Belgian side a free-kick wide on the right and ridiculously poor marking allowed Zulte the freedom of Gent and it was 2-1! This gave the home side a bit of a spur but,again, The Toon took control and Sibierski added to his impressive European goal tally when he strolled past the advancing keeper to make the tie safe.
The second leg should be a mere formality but we have said that before!
The next round will prove to be more difficult against either Fenerbache or AZ Alkmaar who drew 3-3 in Turkey which would seem to make the Dutch side favourites to advance, providing of course we don’t get beat 5-1 in the second leg. History wont repeat itself, will it?
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