Newcastle United vs Benfica match banter!
April 11th, 2013 | 114 Comments |
Date: Thurs 11th April, 2013.
Kick off: 8.05pm.
Referee: Ivan Bebek (Croatia).
UK TV: ITV 4.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this evening’s Europa League second leg against Benfica.
As you probably know, the Magpies were soundly beaten 3-1 in the first leg at the Estdio da Luz. However, they did get an away goal so a 2-0 victory tonight will get them through to the next round. Although this might seem like a tall order against a team as strong as Benfica, Alan Pardew helped to put things in perspective by reminding us that all the team have to do is play as well as Barcelona did when they beat them 2-0 in the Champions League earlier in the season. On this the Silver Supremo said:
“There’s only one team which has beaten them by two clear goals, and that’s Barcelona, so that’s the size of the task, so we are under no illusions there. This is a Champions League team, really, and if it weren’t for Celtic’s fantastic performance in the group, they could have been competing in the Champions League. That’s the quality we are up against. I don’t think there are going to be many better sides that have played here than Benfica.” (more…)