FC Basel (Switzerland) (a) UEFA Cup 2nd Round 1st leg
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Date: Thursday 6th November 2003, 8.30pm local time Venue: St.
Jakob Stadium, Basel |
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FC Basel |
2 - 3 | Newcastle United |
| Half time: | 2 - 2 | |
| Score Sheet: | ||
(11) Cantaluppi
(15) Chipperfield |
Robert (13)
Bramble (37)
Ameobi (75)
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Teams |
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Zuberbuhler |
Given Hughes O'Brien Bramble Bernard Solano Jenas Speed Robert Shearer Ameobi |
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| Substitutes: | ||
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(60) Rossi for
Hakan Yakin (82) Barberis for Gimenez |
Ambrose for Solano
(85) Viana for Robert (90) |
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| Subs not used: | ||
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Quennoz Ze Maria Rapo David Degen Smiljanic |
Harper S.Caldwell Dabizas LuaLua Chopra |
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| Bookings: | ||
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Philipp Degen |
None | |
| Dismissals: | ||
| None | None | |
| Referee: Tom
Ovrebo (Norway) No complaints. . |
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| Attendance: 30,000 - fairly lively, but the support to the home side in the
main came from the terrace behind the goal opposite to the toon
end/corner, not the whole ground as had been the case when Liverpool
came here, at least according to our local correspondent. Toon fans were well-oiled in the main, but fairly polite - especially in the case of the single toilet for the downstairs section.....
Chants included "you're not yodelling anymore",
"have you ever seen a mackem on a tram" and in a new
shouty non-tune style "your cuckoo clocks are f*cked."
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Goals |
11mins: Jermaine Jenas had two attempts at clearing a throw from the right but Cantaluppi's shot from 25 yards was pretty unstoppable. 0-1
13mins: Jenas played the ball up to Shola Ameobi on the halfway line and his ball into the path of Laurent Robert was inch-perfect. He took the ball at full pelt and slid it into the far corner out of the reach of Zuberbuhler. 1-1
15mins: A long throw from near the Newcastle corner flag was headed away by Andy O'Brien and as Jenas attempted to charge the ball down, Chipperfield's shot deflected off Jenas and past Shay Given. 1-2
37mins: An outswinging corner from Robert wasn't dealt with by the Basel defence and the ball struck Gary Speed who seemed to be fouled. Bramble lashed in the loose ball from 12 yards through a crowd of players. 2-2
Half time: FCB 2 NUFC 2
75mins: A poor ball out of defence went straight to Nolberto Solano who played in Shola Ameobi on the edge of the box. He went one way but feinted the other and got the break of the ball that allowed him to slip it under the keeper. 3-2
Full time: FCB 2 NUFC 3
We Said |
Sir Bobby said:
"I always respect our opponents and you always have a chance in football.
"We'd like to believe they have no chance, but they have to believe they have a chance. You never know in football, you just never know. You have to be optimistic in life.
"We won a difficult match. Three goals away from home in Europe is a good reward. If we had not shown our fighting qualities, we would have lost this game.
"We've done well to come back twice.
They gave us problems and tried everything. It was a long night."
On the less-than fit JJ:
"You wouldn't believe this. He went into the gents and bent down and suddenly
he was in seizure. He couldn't move and at that stage, he was out of
the team. We had to have a discussion as to what to do to replace him."
Shay Given said:
"We knew that Basel would come at us early
on and that their crowd would roar them on.
"So our plan was to keep it tight for the first 20 minutes - but things did not work out that way. I have to say that the first goal - and I still don't who scored it - was a real screamer but the second one took a slight deflection.
"What was important to us was that we got straight back into it after their first goal and Laurent Robert saw that we did.
"However, what people watching back home would not see was that the pitch was very heavy and the lads out there had to dig deep and grind out the result."
"I lost in the same stadium a fortnight ago and as a result the Republic of Ireland will not be going to the European Championship finals in Portugal next season.
"I could not have
stood it if we had suffered the same fate and, while I am obviously disappointed
at conceding two goals, I could not be happier with the result."
Finally, Chronicle reporter Miles Starforth happened across a couple of
likely- looking characters "known" to NUFC.com and included them in his
report:
Before kick-off, the sight of thousands and thousands of fans drinking from cans
and bottles outside the stadium would have certainly worried police in England,
but it seemed positively encouraged by the Swiss in Basel.
Beer tents did a roaring trade as home and away fans milled around the ground in the couple of hours before the game.
But United season-ticket holder Tony Greaves wasn't able to join the pre-match drinking as he was making the three-hour drive back to Geneva, where he now works, afterwards with four visiting Newcastle fans.
Greaves, now known as Swiss Toni after the TV character, moved to Switzerland from Newcastle 15 months ago but usually avoids the country's football. He said: "The Swiss league is depressing and I try not to watch it. Newcastle will play a lot better and lose. Basel have a lot of height in their team but that's about it.
"Basel are top of the league here and that says it all. Marco Streller's the top scorer here and he's awful!"
Another United fan, this time a US Army Major, had driven from his base at Landstuhl, Germany, to watch his team, having got hooked in the mid-1990s in a country where football means the oval ball and the NFL.
Major George Winters, originally from Pittsburgh, has been able to take in plenty of Newcastle games during his time posted in Europe.
The army doctor said: "I'm going to miss this when I get back to the States. Over here I've been able to see quite a few games, and I've got Sky TV as well.
"I'd always played football and got watching Newcastle around 1996. I saw them on the pre-season tour of the States a few years back and have seen them twice at St James' Park and a few times in Europe.
"The drive back to Germany isn't going to seem that long thanks to the win."
They Said |
Coach Christian
Gross said:
"We defended badly, especially
for the first and third goals. They were too quick and we haven't
been perfect.
"We started in a good way, but to beat this excellent side from Newcastle, everybody needed to perform in a better way, especially our full-backs, who didn't perform well.
"We had our chances in the second half to re-open the game, but we lacked a freshness.
"But I'm looking forward to three
weeks' time. I have time to prepare for this game
and it will be particularly difficult, but we're coming to Newcastle in the best
spirit."
Match stats |
Third away victory in a row in Europe for the first time in the club's history.
Another victory for the grey away kit maintaining its 100% record: Partizan (a), Breda (a), Fulham (a) and Basel (a).
Waffle |
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A wee bit of history came our way this evening in the St.Jakob stadium, as for the first time in our 35-year European history Newcastle accomplished the feat of winning three consecutive away matches. That statistic was slightly tarnished by the fact that success in Belgrade was a precursor to a staggeringly inept exit from the Champions League on Tyneside, while the Breda trip merely rubber-stamped our decisive advantage from the home leg (as well as ensuring some familiar terrace faces were conspicuous by their absence in Switzerland.) Without being able to look into the future
though, we appear to have returned from Basel with mission
accomplished and relatively few casualties, except Shay Given’s
goals against record. After having conceded an early goal that slightly deflated pre-match optimism (at least in one corner of the ground), the well-received Robert rapidly made amends with another important strike to add to his once-again burgeoning collection. Back came the home side, encouraged by good support from their “Gallowgate end” choir with a heavy drummed backbeat and a seemingly soft second goal was theirs, Given perhaps unsighted but powerless to stop a well-directed but venomless effort. This knocked our confidence for a few minutes, but again we started to creep forward and once someone had the bright idea of avoiding congestion in centre field by diverting to the flanks, things started to look decidedly brighter. An equaliser duly arrived, and as we had on Tyneside six days previously, we broke off for our half time cuppa with something approaching confidence that the job could be finished off after the break to our own specification. Happily on this occasion we followed the script, although the home ‘keeper hadn’t been called upon for too many heroics before Shola’s late winner, which provoked a mass love-in by the corner flag. A second competitive victory then for the club and Sir Bobby on Swiss soil, adding to our success in Zurich a few years back. And like that game, we came away knowing that our opponents may have been well-regarding domestically but found slightly wanting on a bigger stage. Not dissimilar to us really. For those people keeping a running total on these things, it’s a well to point out that we lacked Bowyer, Bellamy and Dyer in the midfield, both of whom would have added to our armoury in this game – one with a wee bit more tenacity than Nobby, the other two with the pace that could have embarrassed the home side into more defensive lapses than the one that brought our winning goal. Up front, the number nine had a night to forget, finding both officials and opponents in less-than-forgiving mood. In other circumstances he could have been replaced well before the end, but he’s not Peruvian….. To return to the midfield for a second and
repeat the fact that Bowyer and Dyer didn’t travel, early
arrivals in the stadium for this game were treated to the
slightly worrying sight of Jenas having a fitness test. It’s only fair also to pay tribute to another good display from Bramble, who also weighed in with another European goal at a crucial point in the game. However it’s tempting to write this paragraph in very small typeface, lest someone take it as support for the “Titus for England” campaign that seems to exist in the minds of certain people who don’t watch him play. Just let him get on with playing and making onfield headlines. Just to return to that record of three away victories, achieved of course in Belgrade, Breda and Basel. What price adding a fourth “B” to that list, if the next round sees the name of Barcelona pulled out of the goldfish bowl? Stranger things have happened and such a tie would again afford us the opportunity to invoke memories for the manager and pit our wits against a certain Mr.Kluivert, in a tie that surely some proper TV channel would fancy showing. Just don’t forget your wellies if we make another homage to Catalonia – book plenty time off work…..and make sure those lucky grey shirts are donned once more. Biffa |
Page last updated 06 November, 2019