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Chelsea have broken Newcastle United European record

5 years ago
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Chelsea have broken a longstanding Newcastle United European record.

On Thursday night, the West London club survived a second half scare to beat Slavia Prague 4-3.

A 5-3 aggregate win taking them into the Europa League semi-finals.

In the process they beat a Newcastle United record that has stood since 2005.

It was 14 years ago when in 2004/05, Newcastle had this set of results in the UEFA Cup:

First Round

Newcastle 2 Bnei Sakhnin 0

Bnei Sakhnin 1 Newcastle 5

Group Stage

Panionio 0 Newcastle 1

Newcastle 2 Dinamo Tbilisi 0

Sochaux 0 Newcastle 4

Newcastle 1 Sporting Lisbon 1

Round of 32

Heerenveen 1 Newcastle 2

Newcastle United 2 Heerenveen 1

Round of 16

Olympiakos 1 Newcastle 3

Newcastle 4 Olympiakos 0

Quarter-finals

Newcastle 1 Sporting Lisbon 0

Sporting 4 Newcastle 1

Until last night, no English club had won 11 European matches in a single season. Newcastle United and Man Utd sharing the record of 10 in a season, until Chelsea this campaign

Credit to Newcastle United fan and beiN Sports presenter @AndyKerrtv for flagging this up before last night’s Chelsea match.

That 2004/05 NUFC run was Graeme Souness with Sir Bobby Robson’s team, after the Geordie knight was sacked after only four games.

The score in Lisbon was 1-1 on the night with 20 minutes to go and with an away goal and 2-1  up on aggregate, Sporting Lisbon needed two goals. Thanks to Souness and his players it ended up in a collapse, the home side actually getting three late goals.

The total lack of interest in getting into Europe these days under Mike Ashley, was best summed up when Alan Pardew (with Ashley’s blessing undoubtedly), declared in 2013 ‘Thank God we’re not in Europe again’ (or words to that effect) after the 2012/13 season when Newcastle got to the Europa League quarter finals.

Interestingly, Newcastle actually only won four European games in that run to the quarter-finals in 2012/13, some great trips though.

What is the point of it all when the owner of your club doesn’t even give any value to fans having the adventure of these European trips, plus of course the chance of success and now Champions League qualification if you won the Europa League?

A few other NUFC seasons are worth noting for number of European wins (Sunderland fans look away now…):

2002/03 – 7 wins in Champions League

2003/04 – 1 Champions League qualifier win and 8 UEFA Cup wins

2006/07 – 1 Intertoto qualifier win and 9 victories in UEFA Cup (knocked out by AZ Alkmaar in quarter-finals)

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