Newcastle United vs Fenerbahce - Live on ESPN
Alan Pardew's men face the Turkish giants in game three of their pre-season campaign.
Newcastle United will line up for their third pre-season European fixture against Turkish giants Fenerbahce in Austria after playing two games in Germany this evening at 6.30pm BST. The match will take place in the currently soggy 4,000 capacity of Austrian Regional League side SC Ritzing and will be shown live on ESPN. Any very unprepared fans can now gain access by paying on the turnstile before the game. The two sides meet for the first time since meeting in the UEFA Cup at St.James' Park in October 2006, when Newcastle's squad included Steve Harper, Steven Taylor and Shola Ameobi, as well as former Fenerbahce midfielder Emre. That game ended 1-0 thanks to a goal from French forward Antoine Sibierski. The friendly follows Newcastle's 0-1 defeat at the hands of German lower league side FC Chemnitzer and their 1-0 victory over Claudio Ranieri's Monaco, that came courtesy of a close-range headed goal by Demba Ba. Fenerbahce represent another level in comparison with those two, and will start their season with a Champions League qualifier, so it will be interesting to see how Newcastle can compete at this stage of their pre-season campaign. Team News Alan Pardew will welcome Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul back, after he joined up with the team this week having had extra time off after his participation in Euro 2012, but French midfield pair Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye won't join up with the squad until the team fly to Portugal for the second leg of their pre-season campaign. The Toon boss has confirmed that Fabricio Coloccini should play some part, but that Papiss Cisse will probably remain out after illness, despite having joined his team-mated in team-building exercises on Wednesday. Steven Taylor, out for most of last season, is back in training, but hasn't featured so far, and Northern Irish winger Shane Ferguson is out of the tour completely thanks to a slight groin strain he picked up earlier in pre-season. Fenerbahce used 18 players in their last pre-season friendly, a 1-1 draw with MTK Budapest in Vienna Neustad on Wednesday, including former Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt and Moussa Sow, both of whom were once linked with moves to St James Park. Check back with WhatCulture for a full match report after the game.