Amsterdam or Bust? Newcastle United vs Atromitos match preview
Posted on August 30th, 2012 | 27 Comments |
Date: Thusday 30th August, 2012.
Kick-Off: 8:00pm.
Referee: Stephen Studer .
UK TV: ITV 4.
With the sides evenly matched at 1-1 after last week’s first leg Europa League tie in Athens, Newcastle United entertain FC Atromitos at St James’ Park this evening to determine which club will take the road towards the Amsterdam Arena (with some welcome additional revenue), and which team will pack away their passports and sun tan lotion for another season.
Should we prevail and make it through to the Group Stages we’ll be one of 48 teams split into 12 groups who will play one another, home and away during the next few months. After which, if we finish in the top two, we’ll move on to the Round of 32 having been joined by the eight clubs finishing third in their UEFA Champions League group.
Europa League Finances
So what exactly is at stake tomorrow evening? While we all know that this revamped second tier competition is the poor man’s version of the Champions League, it is encouraging for all competing clubs to learn they will now benefit from a greater proportion of the “Market Pool” to help add to the official UEFA prize money.
The “market pool” is an additional fund which is topped up by the various European TV companies who broadcast Europa League football in their various home countries, in our case ITV and ESPN. The money is distributed according to the proportional value of each television market represented by the clubs taking part in the UEFA Europa League. So, in addition to the €1.3 million (£1 million plus any match day income generated) Group Stage fee, there will also be performance bonuses of €200,000 (£158,000) for every win and €100,000 (£79,000) for every draw in the group stage. Moreover, qualification bonuses will be given to the teams that progress to the round of 32. The 12 group winners can anticipate earning an extra €400,000 (£317,000) apiece and the runners-up €200,000 (£158,000). With regard to the knockout phase, sides competing in the round of 32 will collect €200,000 each (£158,000), clubs in the round of 16 €350,000 (£277,000) the quarter-finalists €450,000 (£356,000) and the semi-finalists €1 million (£790,000). The UEFA Europa League winners will pick up €5 million (£4 million) and the runners-up €2.5 million (£2 million).
So all in all, a team could receive, at best, €9.9 million (£7.8 million) from playing in this season’s competition plus any additional revenue which would come from the market pool and of course their own stadium based revenue. To put that into context, when Fulham reached the final back in May 2010 they earned just over €10 million (£7.9 million) from their exploits.
Interestingly its not always the winners who make the most from this tournament. Last season Hannover 96 earned €8.5 million (£6.7 million) when reaching the Quarter Final while Besiktas grabbed €8.8 million (£7 million) despite going out in the previous round. Bilbao’s Athletic Club reached the final (€9.5 million or £7.5 million) as did Atletico Madrid who won the competion (€10.5 million or £8.3 million) yet both finalists made less than FC Schalke who went home to Germany with over €11 million (£8.7 million) having lost out in the Quarter Finals.
This occurs because some clubs can benefit if fewer representatives from their country reach the group stages, as the available money is divided between fewer clubs. This tends to benefit clubs from smaller countries e.g. in 2010/11 Panathinaikos received €14.4 million (£11.4 million) from the TV pool as Greece only had one qualifier. This was much more than the €9.7 million (£7.7 million) Lyon received as the French TV pool was divided between three clubs.
All of which is very small beer in comparison to the €60 million (£48.4 million) Chelsea got for winning the Champions League. Nonetheless, although not as lucrative as the Champions League, the Europa League does provide a club like Newcastle with the opportunity to experience European competition again after a five year period in the footballing wilderness. There’s also the added benefit of attracting players to the club, or at least keeping those who are still here because of our involvement in Europe.
As we found when we began our European adventures all those years ago, there is a real need for clubs to establish themselves and gain valuable experience in European football, with the longer term aim of progression into the Champions League.
Having won the UEFA Cup in 2007/08 and reached the Round of 16 of the UEFA Cup in 2008/09 and the Europa League in 2010/11, Zenit St Petersburg have done just that. Their exploits in the second tier tournament helped them to progress through the 2011/12 Champions League group stage and into the knockout rounds. Similarly, having won the UEFA Cup in 2008/09 and qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League in 2009/10, Shakhtar Donetsk qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2010/11 Champions League before losing to the eventual winners, FC Barcelona.
So all in all a massive night for The Toon and a game the players will hopefully never forget.
Squads
Newcastle (from): Tim Krul (G), Steve Harper (G), Rob Elliot (G), Davide Santon, Ryan Taylor, James Tavernier, James Perch, Fabricio Coloccini (C), Mike Williamson, Steven Taylor, Danny Simpson, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Gabriel Obertan, Sylvain Marveaux, Dan Gosling, Vurnon Anita, Gael Bigirimana, Romain Amalfitano, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba, Adam Campbell.
FC Atromitos (from): Charles Itandje (G), Velimir Radman (G), Fotis Karagiolidis (G), Evangelos Nastos, Giannis Skondras, Sokratis Fytanidis, Nikos Lazaridis, Efstathios Tavlaridis, Konstantinos Giannoulis, Walter Matías Iglesias, Elini Dimoutsos, Panagiotis Mpallas, Antonis Athanasiou, Evaggelos Economou, Georgios Makris, Anastasios Kantoutsis, Manolis Kallergis, Miguel Sebastián Garcia, Brito, Anastasios Karamanos, Nikola Beljic, Njazi Kuqi, Athanasios Karagounis, Chumbinho, Denis Epstein.
Although the 18 man squads will be announced officially later, we can be reasonably sure that Cheick Tiote will miss out again as he continues his fight for fitness. The Ivory Coast international has not played since damaging a calf muscle in the 2-1 Premier League victory over Tottenham (All those who remember when Andy Carroll developed a mystery ailment prior to the January 2011 window need to keep taking deep breaths until Friday night). Hatem Ben Arfa will also miss this match, serving the second of his three match ban, and of course Shola Ameobi (hamstring) will be missing as usual while younger bro Sammy (knee) is also ruled out. On the plus side though, Haris Vuckic should be fit once again for this game.
Pardew has to use the depth of his squad ahead of Sunday’s league clash with Aston Villa, although he has suggested that 17-year-old Adam Campbell is unlikely to make the 18 which, from a personal point of view, is a shame. We need a positive result despite the press reports stating a 0 – 0 draw will see us go through. Tavernier was a little overwhelmed last week so I’d bring Simmo back to work within a reasonably mobile back four.
Whether Cabaye plays is down to his fitness and, what may be, continuing uncertainty over his career at St James’ Park. After what was a long drawn out summer and pretty ineffective pre season, the fact that he seems to figure prominently in most of the transfer rumour mills could be a contributing factor? If he doesnt start we’ll miss his “creativity” but there’s no doubt he hasnt been at his best in the two games he’s played so far. So with an eye on the Villa game but also understanding the need to carry more threat than we did in the first leg, I’d give Anita the chance to play alongside Bigi in a solid defensive midfield pairing and release Amalfitano and Marveaux to support Demba Ba up front in what would be his debut in European football.
Atromitos will be confident going into this fixture after coming close to a stunning victory a week ago. The Greeks played their first league game of the season on Sunday and comfortably won away to Kerkyra on the island of Corfu.
http://www.wawsport.com/greek-super-league-2013/kerkyra-0-2-atromitos-video_2fe66f113.html
Goals from Chumbinho (their on loan Brazilian midfielder) and centre back Fytanidis enabled them to go in at half time with a two goal cushion which they maintained during the second half. The 2 – 0 result sees our opponents sitting on top of the Greek Super League, albeit after just one game.
Manager Dusan Bajevic has no new injury concerns and will most likely send out the same team which began the game on Sunday, no doubt hoping to hit us on the break, as he played with a five man midfield and only one recognised striker.
My predicted teams
Newcastle United
Harper,
Simpson, Perch, Saylor, R.Taylor
Anita, Bigirimana,
Amalfitano, Jonas, Marveaux,
Ba.
FC Atromitos
Itandje,
Skondras, Tavlaridis, Fytanidis, Giannoulis,
Epstein, Karagounis, Iglesias, Dimoutsos, Chumbinho
Karamanos.
Conclusion
Although we’ve performed well against previous Greek opposition in this competition (Shearer gave us a 1-0 victory over Panionios in the 2004-05 Uefa Cup Group Stage, and we managed an aggregate 7-1 win over Bajevic’s Olympiacos in the last 16 that same year) this is only Pardew’s fourth game in Europe. In 2006/07 he lost to Palermo in a two legged affair while, in the same season, Atromitos also made their debut in European football losing 1 – 6 on aggregate to holders, Seville.
Let us hope that it’s Pardew who comes through unscathed to fight another day!
We will be running our usual “match banter” feature for this game, which will be published around an hour before the kick off (7pm). After the game, we will also be posting match highlights and a video of the whole game if available.
Poll
Great summary of the importance of tonight’s game, especially the financial breakdown. I also agree with the starting line-up suggested. I do think we’ll see Obertan feature in there somewhere as Pardew still seems to think he has something to offer. Europe aside this should be an interesting game to see how the new players are bedding in and how we cope without key players. I will breathe a sigh of relief when the window closes if we keep all our players, although I expect this to be tinged with dissapointment at our failure to strengthen our first team options. I would like to see Anita step up tonight – I have hopes he is capable of linking up with our forward play.