Not a good night for Newcastle United. Their fans must be wondering if they will ever win another trophy again. What do they have to do? I mean the term “sleeping giant” must have be coined with Newcastle and the Toon Army in mind!

With a 4 - 2 home win secured at St James’ Park they must have fancied their chances of securing a spot in the last eight of the competition and maybe that was the problem. Perhaps they didn’t take AZ Alkmaar seriously enough because they outplayed and outclassed Newcastle and I didn’t think I’d say that. But ultimately, it was the two away away a fortnight ago that saw AZ through.

Understandably, the Newcastle manager, Glenn Roeder wasn’t best pleased to let the lead and the game slip through Newcastle’s fingers and he blamed their defensive errors on not being in the hat for the next round.

Roeder stated, “They are not good goals we conceded. Too often crosses come into our box, they are not defended properly and bad decisions are made.

“I have to find defenders who are good enough to play in front of Shay Given. Shay Given is a is a top drawer keeper but he does not get the protection he should get. He is exposed far too easily.

“Too many defenders make too many mistakes that cost us points.

“They do well, you are happy with them and you think they have learnt. Then ‘bang’ they go and make the same mistake again and let you down.” We did not have enough players who came out and performed, which was a surprise and unexpected.

Told you he wasn’t happy!! Go on Glenn, sing us a song!

Bet it was fun in the changing room after the game! On the other hand, the AZ manager and ex Barcelona boss, Louis Van Gaal, must have been delighted at the way his team played and fought back.

The Soccer Blogger

Rangers made easy work of booking their passage into the last 16 of the Uefa Cup, (where they will meet Spanish side Osasuna), with a 4 - 0 win at Ibrox. However they were assisted by some woeful defending by the Israelis. Hapoel were better at passing the ball around but in all honesty did do anything really constructive with it and never truely threatened the Rangers goal.

Rangers captain, Barry Ferguson, scored twice and he must have please his boss, Wlater Smith, who described his display as magnificent. Smith stated his skipper had “a fantastic evening”.
He continued, “I thought it was an extremely good performance from us. Overall I felt we had a really good night.

“I don’t like to pick them out but I felt Barry Ferguson, who was given the man of the match, was outstanding again,” the Rangers boss went on.

“He’s been playing exceptionally well for us,” he added.

“He got his two goals which were the icing on the cake. His performance was fantastic.”

It must be difficult for Rangers at the moment watching their arch rivals 19 points ahead in the League and uncatchable and playing the likes of AC Milan in the Champions League whilst they are playing Hapoel (no disrespect to them). Even so, this must have been a nice distraction for them and they will be looking forward to the next round against Osasuna with relish.

The Soccer Blogger

It may not have been partuculary straight forward on the night but Newcastle beat Zulte-Waregem to safely secure their place in the last 16 of the Uefa Cup.

Obafemi Martins scored the second-leg winner after delicately lifting the ball over keeper Sammy Bossut to give the Magpies a healthy 4-1 win on aggregate. Newcastle now meet AZ Alkmaar and must fancy their chances of prgressing to the quarter finals.

Newcaslte had failed to force Bossut to make a serious save prior to the goal and in the first half the Belgian side had threatened but Steven Taylor and Titus Bramble snuffed out the attacks.

However it was a different story at Ewood Park where Blackburn fought out a 0 - 0 draw and therefore lost the tie on aggregate 3 - 2 to German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen. In truth Blackburn did little in the first half to worry Bayer apart from an early effort that was deflected wide from Benni McCarthy.

It did improve in the second half and Bayer mainly went on the defensive to protect their 3-2 win at home. Although they did hit the post.

Blackburn manager, Mark Hughes, was particularly disappointed by referee Alberto Mallenco, claiming should should have been tougher on Bayer whose delaying tactics angered the home crowd.

The Blackburn manager was even spoken to by the Spanish official during the game. Hughes said, “There was time-wasting, theatrics and unnecessary stoppages.

“I was disappointed the referee allowed it to happen for so long.”

I I do not think he was using this as an excuse for his team’s exit as he did admit that his team’s poor finishing had more to do with it than the referee’s performance. Hughes said, “The referee isn’t the reason we were beaten over the two legs, we made too many errors.

“We had a couple of gilt-edged chances that we needed to put away and didn’t so that’s it. Now we must push on in the league to qualify again next term.

“It’s not to be our year but we’ve enjoyed this campaign. It has been good for us and for the development of the players.

“We’ve struggled of late because of the injuries we’ve had but we’ll learn from this and be a better team.”

The Soccer Blogger

Newcaslte United put one foot, and a very big one at that, into the last 16 of the Uefa Cup last night with a 3-1 away win at Belgium team Zulte Waregem. No I haven’t heard of them before either! Maybe not surprising as they are only part-timers but hey, they were good enough to win the Belgium Cup last season.

Roeder, the Newcastle manager, didn’t spring any surprises in his line-up after handing the skipper’s armband to Nicky Butt. Newcaslte took the lead through an own goal in the 47th minute. The tie was almost over in the 59th minute when Damien Duff was brought down in the penalty area and Obafemi Martins coverted the spot kick. The home side did briefly pose the threat of a comeback when they drew a goal back on 69 minutes but the game was over in 76 mins when Sibierski scored his eight goal of the season.

I think Roeder can start planned for the next round, don’t you? Really don’t see the Belgium part-timers coming back from that at St. James’. Then again I seem to remember saying, “well, there’s no way Liverpool are coming back from 3-0 down against AC Milan, game over!” Hmmm!

No really, job done, this round Glenn!

The Soccer Blogger