Barcelona (h) (Spain) Friendly
Date: Wednesday 7th August 2002, 7.45pm. Venue: St. James' Park Conditions: An
absolute deluge on the way to the game but the rain eased by
kick-off and then stopped. |
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| Newcastle United | 0 - 3 | Barcelona |
| Half time: | 0 - 2 | |
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| Score Sheet: | ||
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Kluivert (28)
 Saviola (35) Enrique (50)
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Teams |
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Given Hughes Bernard Solano Dabizas Bramble Viana Dyer Shearer LuaLua Speed |
Valdes Puyol De Boer Hernandez Navarro Cocu Mendieta Saviola Kluivert Luis Enrique Motta | |
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| Substitutes: | ||
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Harper for Given (69) Jenas for LuaLua (62) Ameobi for Dyer (78) Griffin for Dabizas (78) |
Reiziger for Puyol (9) G.Garcia for Reiziger (46) Deiberson for Kluivert (62) Riquelme for Luis Enrique (79) | |
| Subs not used: | ||
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Elliott Marcelino Acuna Caldwell Cort |
Enke Lopez Rochemback D.Garcia |
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| Bookings: | ||
| None | Cocu (foul, 32) | |
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| Sendings off: | ||
| None | None | |
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| Referee:
Uriah Rennie. On the third anniversary of the only senior red card that stuck for Alan Shearer (at home to Aston Villa), the referee that dished it out was far more lenient tonight. Shearer went in hard on several occasions and although the challenges seemed fair, the visiting players weren't happy. Rennie said nothing to Al. |
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| Attendance: 51,257.
A record attendance for a friendly at St. James' Park, beating the previous highest which was 47,124 on November 6th 1946, when United played Norrkoping. A few wartime games exceeded the 50,000 mark, the 54,954 on December 26th, 1946 against Manchester City being the highest.
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Goals |
28 mins Patrick Kluivert was far from favourite to reach a through ball but controlled it on his toe-end before beating both Titus Bramble and Nicos Dabizas and slotting the ball under Shay Given. 0-1
35 mins Mendieta found Saviola in acres of space down our left and although the Barca player looked offside, TV pictures showed he wasn't. After letting the ball bounce Saviola lashed it past Given with the outside of his boot. 0-2
Half time: Newcastle 0 Barcelona 2
50 mins An
unmarked Luis Enrique headed past Given and in off the underside of the
bar. 0-3
(60 mins Shay Given saved Patrick Kluivert's penalty)
Full time: Newcastle 0 Barcelona 3
|
We Said |
Bobby:
"I wouldn't say they taught us a
lesson, but we learnt a lesson.
"I'm not worried about the Champions League game. We're not playing Barcelona. We'll have a good public here and the lads know how important it is. We'll be better for this performance tonight.
"We'll be fitter for a start. It was quite important for some of the lads to stay on for 90 minutes, and some did."
"I'm more disappointed than despondent to be honest. We had a great start and for half an hour, we were easily the better side.
"We had the shots, we had the free-kicks, we had the chances, we certainly should have had a penalty and Dabizas flashed a header that went straight at the 'keeper.
"For half an hour, we looked a
pretty good side, but what happens is that goals change games. We were 1-0
down from their first shot at goal after they had been second best and
then Saviola did well and with two shots, we were 2-0 down."
|
They Said |
Louis van Gaal
said:
"I think we were lucky in the first 20 minutes because Newcastle had
played very well and they had a good chance.
"They could have scored a goal from their chance and didn't and we scored from a half-chance because it was the individual quality of Patrick Kluivert that got the goal.
"After that, we played very well, I think, and we controlled the game. In the second half, we played with great possession of the ball and I believe that Newcastle United could not attack and press the ball anymore."
"The first two goals were high quality goals. That's not the fault of the defence of Newcastle I don't think.
"When you see the number of
chances we had in this game - we came maybe six times at the goalkeeper
and we scored three goals and had a penalty. No match is like that."
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Match Stats |
Pre-season goals:
Ameobi 1
Bassedas 1
Dyer 1
Griffin 1
LuaLua 6
Marcelino 1
Robert 4
Shearer 4
Solano 1
Speed 1
Viana 3
OG 1
Pre-season pitch time (in minutes):
Viana 45+45+45+45+90+72+90=452
Shearer 45+45+45+45+90+90+90=450
Solano 45+45+45+45+90+90+90=450
Speed 45+45+45+45+90+90+90=450
Hughes 45+45+45+45+90+84+90=444
Bernard 45+45+45+45+76+72+90=438
LuaLua 45+45+45+45+67+84+62=393
Given 45+45+45+45+90+0+69=339
Dabizas 45+0+0+45+76+90+78=334
Dyer 45+0+45+45+14+90+78=317
Bramble 0+0+0+45+90+72+90=297
Harper 45+45+45+45+0+90+21=291
S.Caldwell 45+90+45+45+14+0+0=239
Elliott 45+45+45+45+14+18+0=212
Griffin 45+45+45+45+0+6+12=198
Marcelino 45+45+45+45+0+18+0=198
Acuna 45+45+45+45+0+0+0=180
Bassedas 45+45+45+45+0+0+0=180
Kerr 45+45+45+45+0+0+0=180
Quinn 45+45+45+45+0+0+0=180
Ameobi 45+45+45+0+23+6+12=176
McClen 0+45+45+45+0+0+0=135
O'Brien 45+45+45+0+0+0+0=135
Robert 45+45+45+0+0+0+0=135
Jenas 0+0+0+0+76+18+28=122
Cort 0+0+0+45+0+0+0=45
|
Waffle |
Possession may be 9/10 of the law but Newcastle found out that it means absolutely nowt against a European Superpower, friendly or no friendly.
Patrick Kluivert made light of United's strong opening to tuck away Barcelona's first real chance of the night after 28 minutes. From then on the result never looked in doubt as the Catalans threatened to make a Spanish Omelette out of the black and whites.
Only a Shay Given penalty save and some generous finishing from our guests kept the score below the sort of thrashing Bobby's boys were recently dishing out in Holland.
Nicos Dabizas was admittedly unlucky to see a fine header saved and Nobby Solano only just failed to score from a free-kick but United struggled to create many clearcut openings. A couple of Alan Shearer headers went close and Kieron Dyer almost finished after rounding the keeper but a well-organised Barca defence and poor crossing kept United at bay.
Plus points? Well Tino's jacket was a Bobby dazzler and Shay will be pleased to belatedly save a Spanish penalty but perhaps this game against stern opposition provided more questions than answers.
Certainly at the back the introduction of Bernard and Bramble has made a porous defence look positively sieve-like. That's not to say the new boys don't have potential but the back four now looks like it will take some time to become anything resembling a unit. Time we don't have.
The midfield was also an area of concern, playing with two wide men really does place a lot of onus on Speed to provide the steel as Dyer darts around backward and forward. Viana once again looked good but his roaming seemed to confuse Nobby Solano, their wing-switching leaving Bernard horribly exposed for the second goal.
Up front? Well, let's just say that LuaLua didn't pick up the baton from Molineux and his partnership with Shearer is still some way off rivalling the combo Al enjoyed with Bellamy last season. Lua's point-blank miss from a Shearer knockdown summed up their evenings.
So, plenty of food for thought for Bobby and whereas it would be a major surprise if Zeljeznicar were half as strong as Barcelona, we might need to double our efforts to see them off. We have the talent but the understanding still seems some way off.
Niall Mackenzie