Sochaux (a) - Souness Comments

By Matthew Jones
November 23 2004

Thursday will be a tough battle for Newcastle United, as they make the trip to Sochaux in the UEFA Cup. It will be a tough game for the Magpies, who are missing several key players - and considering Sochaux's recent form, United will have their hands full.

Sochaux have now gone eight league games unbeaten, winning away at Monaco on Friday evening.

Alan Shearer will miss the game through injury, as will Andy O'Brien and Stephen Carr. Ronny Johnsen is ineligible.

Souness had scout David Mills to monitor Sochaux's progress over recent weeks, while Sochaux coach Marc Keller, a Blackburn player under Souness three years ago, is detirmined to overcome the visiting Mags.

Souness commented:

"Marc tells me we will have our hands full with Sochaux.

"They will be physical and in our face.

"They are very aggressive, have an aggressive coach and play a pressing game.

"They're fourth in their league and have some good young players, so they will be a test.

"We want to finish top in this group, because the advantages are there if you do so.

"You don't want to be playing a team who have dropped out of the Champions League in the next round."

Kick off is at 7.45pm (English time) and the game will be shown live on ITV2.

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