Tayls of the unexpected.

Tayls of the unexpected.

Newcastle 1 Olympiakos 1
(4-4 on penalties)

Newcastle managed to write a footnote in their history before a handful of fans at the Estadio Algarve on Friday night, contriving to leave the pitch honours even with their Greek foes, despite a penalty shootout!

The opening game of the XII Trofeo Guadiana between Olympiakos and Braga had ended 1-1 on Thursday night and despite tournament rules stating that spot kicks would decide a winner, the shootout was locked at 4-4 when the match referee called a halt to proceedings.

Fast forward 24 hours and the Greeks faced United in the second game of the tournament - which was to end in an identically farcical manner, adding another chapter to a pre-season which is now firmly in the twilight zone.

Things began well for the black and whites, with Alan Pardew making it from Thursday's Milk Cup Final loss in Northern Ireland to Faro for game number four (and country number three) of our pre-season itinerary.

Making his first appearance of 2012, Steven Taylor notched a comeback strike when his deflected 25th minute shot beat Roy Carroll in the Olympiakos goal, after Dan Gosling's cross was cleared onto Gabriel Obertan and the ball dropped nicely for Tayls ten yards out.

Prior to that, Shola Ameobi had gone close with a 9th minute header in the ninth minute, but the Magpies were less than impressive as a forward unit and were forced into a substitution just after the half hour mark.

A free-kick in a central area was fired in at Tim Krul who saved uncomfortably with his legs and in clearing the ball Gosling pulled up with what looked like a hip problem - continuing briefly before making way for Mehdi Abeid.

The Greeks may possess a fragile economy, but their tackling tonight was at full throttle and they had already registered one booking when Shola Ameobi was blatantly fouled off the ball as he tried to join in an attack.

Staying down for treatment - although he rightly refused to leave the field when an electric medical cart drove on to the field - United's captain was then yellow-carded by the erratic referee for querying the lack of a free kick.

As expected, goalscorer Taylor was replaced at half-time by Paul Dummett and Haris Vuckic was in the thick of things at the start of the second half when he tangled with an opposition player who went in with a high foot - both players booked for some low-key jousting.

After a quiet 15 minute spell, things started to liven up when Krul was forced into another save and then two substitutions saw Papiss Cisse and Sammy Ameobi take to the field while his brother departed along with Obertan - once again profligate and frustrating in equal measure.

What proved to be a decisive decision then came with 17 minutes to play, as Francois Modesto received his second yellow card and Olympiakos were reduced to ten men for a late challenge on Romain Amalfitano.

Unhappy with the decision and sauntering from the field, the Greek captain then ignored the request of the fourth official to vacate the bench and only departed down the tunnel when the referee stopped play and refused to restart until Modesto exited to the dressing room.

While a becalmed Newcastle proved unable to raise themselves, the Greek Champions though began to pose far of a threat and move the ball around to better effect.

Olympiakos equalised in the 79th minute when a run down the left from Abdoun saw the ball pulled back for Kostas Mitroglu to whack home from the edge of the area - fitting punishment for an increasingly ragged toon display.

Stung by that equaliser and with the prospect of a spot kick shootout now looming, United almost regained the lead two minutes later through Cisse.

His header from Amalfitano's cross was well saved and the number 9 then he hit the post with the follow-up before Amalfitano then found the side-netting from a tight angle, although by then the linesman had raised an offside flag.

Barring a couple of late runs down the United right from Sammy Ameobi that promised much but delivered much save for one half-chance for Cisse to shoot, the match then ended and proceeded straight to penalties.

First up was Cisse, but his casual approach hardly bred confidence and sure enough, he wellied the ball way over the goal and into the empty seating deck behind.

The Greeks then proceeded to tuck all of their first four efforts, but United kept pace with them thanks to decent finishes from messrs Vuckic, Amalfitano and Perch - the latter of whom retained his composure to convert after the referee had inexplicably pulled him up in mid-take.

Having failed to get near the previous four spot kicks he'd faced, Krul then did well to deny Andreas Tatos, before Abeid stepped up to coolly tuck away his effort and leave the game unresolved.

Given the disregard for the tournament rules, quite where this leaves United's chances of winning the damn thing against Braga on Saturday is a matter of opinion, with a rule about the number of in-game replacements also apparently broken by the Greeks.

Olympiakos currently sit on 10 points (from two draws and eight penalty conversions) while Newcastle and Braga have five points apiece (from a draw and four penalty conversions).

With the penalties only counting though in event of a tie, the Greeks have two points from two games and both Braga and Newcastle have one - meaning that a toon victory will see them collect (meaningless) silverware.

Alan Pardew may wish to overlook Steve Harper for duty in the second game however, given yet another bizarre regulation separated the teams in the event of a tie by calculating the mean age of those player who appeared and giving the winners trophy to the youngest!

Full match report to follow.

Team: Krul, Santon, Williamson, Perch, S.Taylor (Dummett 46), Bigirimana, Gosling (Abeid 36), Obertan (Sa Ameobi 72), Vuckic, Sh.Ameobi (Cisse 72), Amalfitano.
Subs n/u: Coloccini, Simpson, R.Taylor, Harper, Cabaye, Ba, Tiote, Harper.

Booked: Sh.Ameobi, Vuckic

From NUFC.com

 

Great to see Saylor back and scoring.

 

It sure is. We miss him like hell when he's out.

 

Very true the pairing of him and Colo one of the best in the league.

 

The best in my opinion, but then again I would think that.

 

Very pleased to see Saylor back. Also good to see so many getting a decent run out (90 minutes for the likes of Bigi + Alfi). I'm surprised he keeps going with Obertan + Vuckic in these friendlies though - would like to see others getting more game time than those two.