Newcastle 1 - 1 Fenerbahce - Friendly Match Report

By Simon Gallagher / July 21, 2012

Newcastle were held to a draw at the Sonnenseestadion in Ritzing, Austria after a last minute goal from the Turkish side cancelled out a fine goal from substitute Mehdi Abeid. Despite that last-gasp goal, it was still a very impressive result for Pardew's men whose tour of Germany now ends with a win, a draw and a defeat. The Magpies welcomed back Fabricio Coloccini to the centre of defence of a team that was still some way from Pardew's strongest, with youngster James Tavernier in for Davide Santon and Dan Gosling in the centre of the park thanks to Yohan Cabaye's absence. Papiss Cisse also returned to the bench following absence, but Demba Ba started up front at the head of a On an awful pitch, both teams started slowly, trading blows and having difficulty staying on their feet thanks to the slippery surface, with Fenerbahce lookingthe slightly more assured of the two in an opening half an hour that saw only a few chances. The first came to Newcastle in the shape of a free-kick within the first two minutes, awarded after Obertan unceremoniously scythed down, which Ryan Taylor wasted, despite being well within his usual shooting distance. Next it was Fenerbahce's turn to threaten with two shots blazed over the crossbar, first from Brazilian Cristian Baroni and then by compatriot Alex. Both Cheick Tiote and returning captain Coloccini stood out as the best of the Newcastle bunch during the first half, but Newcastle were guilty of wastefulness with the final ball, too often seeing crosses dropping too close to the goalkeeper. The same could be said of a number of corners that were awarded to the Toon in the first half, none of which led to any real chances. The referee's performance did little to help the conditions as he blew indiscriminately for perfectly good tackles and waved the play on when others might have awarded free-kicks. As a result the Fenerbahce players spent a good portion of the first half with their arms in the air in exasperation. The second half opened with a good run and shot by former Chelsea striker Miroslav Stoch which went high and wide of Rob Elliot's goal, before another early free-kick that allowed Ryan Taylor to swing a ball into the packed box again leading to nothing. Fenerbahce enjoyed the best of the start of the second half, piling on the pressure with former Liverpool Dirk Kuyt volleying wide in the 51st minute, before another Alex shot was blazed over the bar from a good position, and Cristian Baroni again found row Z from distance. But with those chances coming to nothing, Newcastle began to claw their way back into the game, and Pardew took the opportunity to bring on a handful of substitutes who changed the flow of the game almost completely. First Gael Bigirimana and Jose Gutierrez came on, replacing Cheick Tiote and Sylvain Marveaux who had shown some good touches once more. Newcastle then started to get themselves more into the right positions in the final third, and just before the 60 minute mark Ryan Taylor hit another close but wide of the left hand post, before Fenerbahce countered with a 65th minute shot from distance from Mehmet Topal, and a header back across the box a few minutes later, which caused minor panic among the Newcastle defence before Rob Elliot came to claim. Pardew continued his substitutions in the 67th minute as Papiss Cisse and Davide Santon came on for Demba Ba and Danny Simpson, and in the 72nd minute Mehdi Abeid for Gosling, and the changes had an immediate effect. Just two minutes after coming on Abeid latched on to Bigirimana's hoisted ball into the box and held off a defender before turning and coolly firing home from close range in impressive fashion. With the goal now alive, Newcastle continued their pressure and straight after the goal half-time substitute Sammy Ameobi had a strong drive saved by the Fener keeper diving down to his left before brother Shola narrowly missed putting a volley in to the top corner after a good ball into the box from Papiss Cisse. The Senegalese hitman then had his own opportunity to extend the score, trying a long and nonchalant lob after some sloppy defending gifted him the ball that the 'keeper pushed out for a corner. From the midway point of the second half, Newcastle seemed to have found their stride, passing confidently with both Mehdi Abeid and Gael Bigirimana looking good, and both Sammy Ameobi and Papiss Cisse looking more dangerous than the frontline had in the first half of the game. But just as they were enjoying that period of good pressure, Fenerbahce grabbed a late equaliser, with Brazilian Cristian Baroni finally finding his shooting boots and hitting the back of the net from just outside the box past a sprawling Rob Elliot. In truth the 'keeper's starting position wasn't great, but the shot came so early he couldn't rectify that in time. That goal turned out to be the final kick of the game, and while Alan Pardew might have anjoyed adding another victory to the pre-season slate, it was another good run out with some definite positives. TeamsNewcastle United (4-2-3-1): Rob Elliot; Danny Simpson (Davide Santon 68), James Tavernier, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Ryan Taylor; Cheick Tiote (Gael Bigirimana 59), Dan Gosling (Mehdi Abeid 73); Gabriel Obertan (Shola Ameobi 75), Haris Vuckic (Sammy Ameobi 46), Sylvain Marveaux (Jonas Gutierrez 59); Demba Ba (Papiss Cisse 68) Subs not used: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson Fenerbahce (4-2-3-1): Mert Gunok; Orhan Sam, Bekir Irtegun, Serdar Kesimal, Hasan Ali Kaldirim; Mehmet Topal (Henri Bienvenu 85), Cristian Baroni; Dirk Kuyt (Semih Senturk 68), Alex De Souza (c) (Selcuk Sahin 68), Miroslav Stoch; Moussa Sow (Mehmet Topuz 46) Subs not used: Serkan Kirintili, Gokhan Gonul, Salih Ucan, Recep Niyaz, Caner Erkin, Ozer Hurmaci, Sezer Ozturk, Volkan Demirel