Newcastle v PSV preview ahead of St James’ Park clash in Champions League

Welcome to the Newcastle v PSV preview.

Wednesday 21st January and an 8pm kick-off.

Newcastle United return to Champions League action this Wednesday night when welcoming PSV Eindhoven to St James’ Park.

The return of Europe’s premier competition after a six-week absence does nothing to ease an absolutely hectic fixture schedule as United are repeatedly playing every weekend and midweek in an attempt to achieve success on four fronts.

A win on Wednesday night would go a long way to securing a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time in our history.

Form

The Toon have played six champions league matches so far this season, winning three, drawing one and losing two. Wins have come over Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao whereas we drew away at Leverkusen despite holding a 2-1 lead with just two minutes to go. We’ve also lost 2-1 to Barcelona and Marseille. We’ve scored thirteen goals and conceded four. The ten points gained had us twelfth in the table before this seventh round of matches, just two points off the top eight that would guarantee progress into the knockout round.

PSV have won two, drawn two and lost two of their six champions league games so far. Impressive wins have come against Napoli and Liverpool, whilst they’ve drawn with Bayer Leverkusen and Olympiacos and lost to Union SG and Atleti. They’ve scored fifteen goals and conceded eleven. Their eight points had them twenty-first in the table before the seventh round of matches..

Last time out

Newcastle travelled to Wolves on Sunday afternoon and were desperately disappointed to draw 0-0 against the side at the bottom of the league. Neither side were particularly impressive but NUFC had a number of half-chances that we couldn’t convert. Perhaps the best came in the ninety-sixth minute when Bruno took a touch in the box but unfortunately sliced well wide on a day where United dropped two points.

PSV enjoyed an away win on Saturday when they won 2-1 against Fortuna Sittard. They took an early lead in the eighth minute but were pegged back soon after. Late on in the second half, they scored again to seal the win and keep them top of the league by a whopping sixteen points.

Stat attack!

-Newcastle have hosted Dutch opposition on seven previous occasions, winning five and losing two.

-This will be the third time PSV have visited St James Park. They won a Champions League game 2-0 in 97/98 but NUFC gained revenge with a 2-1 in the 03/04 UEFA Cup.

– Newcastle have won their last four home matches against Dutch teams, scoring thirteen goals in the process.

Memorable match

In 2004, Sir Bobby was desperate to get his hands on the UEFA Cup trophy having seen off Breda, Valarenga, Basel and Majorca in the opening rounds, to set up a mouth-watering quarter-final tie with PSV Eindhoven.

The first leg had seen United come away with a very useful 1-1 draw courtesy of a Jermain Jenas header that gave the Toon a slight advantage due to the away goal.

The second leg would be a battle between two talismanic strikers, Alan Shearer leading the line for Newcastle and Mateja Kezman hoping to win the tie for PSV. It took just nine minutes for one of those forwards to make an impact. Newcastle were awarded a corner at the Leazes End and Laurent Robert’s perfect delivery was met at the near post by Shearer who was able to power a header into the back of the net to give Sir Bobby an absolute dream start and put United ahead for the first time in the tie.

With the Toon attacking at will and spurning a number of opportunities, it seemed just a matter of time before they’d score a killer second goal to put the match beyond doubt, unfortunately it never materialised and PSV were given the fifteen-minute halftime break with the score just 2-1 on aggregate.

PSV started the second half on the front foot and were given a golden opportunity to level when they were awarded a penalty just a few minutes in. Up stepped Mateja Kezman and he made no mistake when converting past Shay Given to level the match and the tie. With NUFC’s away goal now wiped out, it meant no further scoring would result in extra time and penalties.

Thankfully the equaliser brought about a redoubling of efforts both on the pitch and in the stands. Laurent Robert was causing chaos with his deliveries and his free-kick created a golden chance for Titus Bramble who wastefully headed over the bar to the dismay of the home crowd. Just five minutes later, those jeers were turned to cheers as Robert fired in a corner from the right into the path of an unmarked Gary Speed who made no mistake when powering a header into the net to restore the advantage with less than twenty-five minutes to go.

PSV huffed and puffed without really looking like scoring again and Shay Given was alert to block a late free-kick as the Toon reached their first European semi-final for thirty-five years. Newcastle 2-1 PSV Eindhoven (3-2 aggregate).

Played for both

Patrick Kluivert signed for Sir Bobby in 2004 and big things were expected of him alongside Alan Shearer, as the Toon looked to bounce back into the Champions League, having finished fifth the previous season.

Unfortunately, his first goal was scored in Sir Bobby’s last match in charge as our season was thrown into disarray only four games in. Highlights of his time on Tyneside were in short supply but he did score winning goals against both Chelsea and Tottenham in the FA Cup, as Graeme Souness’ team went all the way to the semi-final before a disastrous defeat to Man Utd at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. After one uninspiring year at NUFC, Kluivert was shown the door and moved to Valencia where he was hampered by both form and fitness issues. He played for PSV for one season from 2006 but only managed three goals in  sixteen appearances.

Luuk De Jong had a disastrous loan spell at NUFC in 2014. Managing just twelve matches at the Toon and failing to find the net, if he’s remembered at all by Toon fans, it won’t be fondly. Unbelievably, he signed for PSV a few months later and scored an impressive ninety-four goals in one hundred and fifty-nine league games.

Gini Wijnaldum spent just one season at the Toon. Signing for Steve McClaren from PSV in 2015. He’d scored forty goals in one hundred and nine appearances for the Dutch giants and things got off to a very promising start when he netted a bullet header against Southampton on his NUFC debut. Wijnaldum netted eleven goals in his one season at NUFC as we endured a fruitless attempt at avoiding relegation. The fact that all goals came at home led to allegations that he was something of a fair-weather player. He jumped ship to Liverpool rather than helping us achieve promotion back to the Premiership and was repeatedly reminded of this by NUFC fans when facing the Toon in later years.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 0-0 draw away to Wolves:

“A game of frustration for us. They played very low and minimised space and we had to have the intention of trying to win the game in every moment. We had a lot of the ball. I thought we didn’t do enough with it; our cutting edge was missing. But I thought we played better the longer the game went on and I thought the substitutes made a positive impact. With the ball, I thought we had control of the game very early.”

Peter Bosz after a 2-1 win away at Fortuna Sittard:

“After about sixty minutes, things became less easy for the opponent and more spaces opened up. In the closing stages we still created several chances with Dennis, Paul and Ivan. Those were good moments, although you have to remember that Fortuna Sittard also has enough qualities. It was not an easy game, but I think we played a good game.”

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

For further info and/or to donate online go to Newcastle Foodbank

Prediction

PSV have both scored and conceded a lot of goals in Europe this year, making them very hard to predict. The Toon have looked good in the Champions League.. I fancy us to achieve another memorable European victory. Newcastle 2-1 PSV.