Dyer runs at Barca

By Peter Donnelly
March 21 2003

Newcastle were knocked out of the Uefa Champions League, Second Phase, on Wednesday night, as Barcelona won at St. James' 2-0 and Inter Milan done the damage in Germany. Still, the competition was a great adventure. It was a bright start for United, as Craig Bellamy had an early chance, which he put wide after being played through by Alan Shearer. It was the running power through the middle which was causing Barca problems and Bellamy again was through on goal in the inside right position, however he miss-fired high and wide, once more.

Barca then got in behind our defence, as Brazilian midfielder Rochemback raced clear of Olivier Bernard but fired wide. Bernard done well to catch up though.

Soon after our Welsh Wippet then showed some brilliant skill on the left-wing, cleverly getting past Andersson and raced down the line only for him to miss-hit his cross.

The more the game went on the more Barca came into it and we were'nt quite as sharp as we usually are, as Barca started showing Newcastle what they are made of.

As the Spanish club silenced the crowd Newcastle then came back at them, when Kieron Dyer sent Alan Shearer down the line and the 32-year-old produced a good cut back to Bellamy inside the box, however the Barca keeper diverted the Welshman's shot onto the post. Was this going to be one of those game?

Half Time then and it was 0-0. We still weren't quite as slick as we could have been but the chances were created and we were unhappy at their clean sheet.

The news from Germany wasn't good: Bayer 0 Inter 1, but even if Inter were going to win there was still pride and glory at stake in our match.

In the second half Barca came even more into the game and frustrated Newcastle by cleverly passing the ball about and restricted out attacking play aswell.

15 minutes into the 2nd period and they took the lead. It was a cruel moment for Titus Bramble but it has to be said, he made a big blunder. However, I watched Bramble at Ipswich and he's the type of the player who has these faults in his game - but in the past few months he hadn't been making them which is a sign of progress but the fact is he's very young and needs to keep learning, so it was inevitable that he was going to make a clanger sooner or later. And if he does go on to become a world-class centre back I'm sure Titus would say he's glad he made that mistake so he could have leanred from it.

Anyway, Patrick Kluivert took advantage of the siuation and poked the ball home. Incidentally, Kluivert got a warm hand from the Toon Army when he was subbed later on in the game and the Dutchman appreciated it too - I think that's the crowds reaction to a fine, fine player who expressed a fondness for Newcastle and claimed a move to the Prem will happen one day.

Back to the game and the goal was a blow but we still managed to put some decent pressure on Barca

But on 74 minutes Barca wrapped up the victory when they curled in a free kick and an un-marked Motta skillfully shot past Shay Given. The marking was very poor, unfortunately.

There was still enough time for Bellamy to have some chances though - Robert whipped in an excellent cross only for Bellers to head wide and he later hit a fine half volley over the bar from the edge of the box. Credit him for getting into the positions.

Hugo Viana came on and had a very good attempt from a 25-yard free kick, but it wasn't our night.

We kept on trying but the game finished 2-0 and we were out of the Champions League, with Inter winning 2-0 at Bayer. Noticable peformances by O'Brien, Bernard, Jenas, Dyer and Bellamy were pleasing, but Barca showed their class too and luck just didn't go our way.

The crowd were maybe poor at times but they half made up for it when the team was given a superb and deserved reception at full-time, for the roller-coaster ride they have given us. It has been a memorable and fantastic journey and I'd just like to say WE BLOODY LOVED IT and as a club and team proved we can be one of the big boys and hopefully we'll get another crack at it next year.

So long for now...