Sporting return with appetite
Tuesday, 29 March 2005
[1] Sporting Clube de Portugal return to St James' Park having already faced Newcastle United CF this season in the UEFA Cup's inaugural group stage. Their Group D encounter in England's north-east, where Sporting would return in the Round of 16 to defeat Middlesbrough FC, finished 1-1 - although both sides were already realistically assured of their places in the knockout stage before kick-off. In the event, Craig Bellamy put the home side ahead after five minutes but Custódio equalised shortly before half-time.That game represented the second time that the clubs had been drawn together in Europe, and Newcastle will have fond memories of their first encounter. The teams met in the second round of the 1968/69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a tournament Newcastle went on to win. The first leg in Portugal was drawn 1-1 and the return at St James' Park was settled by Bryan Robson's solitary early goal. In the 35 seasons since lifting that trophy - by defeating Hungarian side Újpesti Dosza SC in the final - Newcastle have not won a single major domestic or European honour.Newcastle have met two other Portuguese clubs, both in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Their progress to the 1969 final also featured a 6-4 aggregate win against Setubal club Vitória FC at the quarter-final stage, after the English club had built a 5-1 lead from the home leg. The following season, Newcastle defeated FC Porto in the second round 1-0 on aggregate. Newcastle therefore go into this Sporting encounter with a home record of three wins and one draw against Portuguese clubs.Sporting reached the last eight thanks to that 4-2 aggregate victory against Middlesbrough, sealed after an impressive display earned a 3-2 first-leg win at the Riverside. A late Pedro Barbosa goal clinched victory in Lisbon to keep up the side's impressive 100 per cent success record against English teams in UEFA club competitions. Manchester United FC were defeated in the 1963/64 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Sunderland AFC were eliminated from the same competition 3-2 on aggregate ten years later and Southampton FC made way in second round of the 1981/82 UEFA Cup.Sporting's 1964 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final tussle with United produced one of the all-time great European comebacks, after the Portuguese club lost the first leg at Old Trafford 4-1, with Denis Law's hat-trick and a goal from Bobby Charlton seemingly giving the English club an unassailable lead. But Sporting found a hat-trick hero of their own in Osvaldo Silva in the return leg, as Sporting won 5-0 en route to lifting the trophy by defeating another Hungarian side, MTK Budapest, in the final.
Sporting's Mauricio Pinilla with Aaron Hughes of Newcastle in December's 1-1 draw