newcastle head for last four published: thursday 15 april 2004
newcastle united fc 2-1 psv (agg: 3-2) veterans alan shearer and gary speed prove their worth.
by alex o'henley at saint james' park
two goals from corners earned newcastle united fc a 2-1 victory at home to psv eindhoven and a place in the uefa cup semi-finals.
headed goals alan shearer and gary speed both headed in either side of mateja kezman's penalty equaliser early in the second half to ensure the english side progressed to a last-four meeting with olympique de marseille thanks to a 3-2 aggregate victory following a 1-1 draw in eindhoven.
dyer in reserve kieron dyer had recovered from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the first leg last thursday, but despite speculation that the england midfield player might come straight back into the side, he was named among the substitutes.
rommedahl return by contrast dennis rommedahl, a second-half substitute in the philips stadium, came into the starting eleven for the dutch side who were without long-term injury victims arjen robben, andré ooijer, kevin hofland and theo lucius.
shearer strikes psv knew they had to score if they were to reach the semi-finals, but from the outset it was the home side who made all the running. psv coach guus hiddink had warned about the danger posed by shearer and within nine minutes the newcastle captain duly obliged by opening the scoring. lauren robert swung in a corner with his left foot and shearer was the first to react at the near post, glancing a powerful header past the advancing ronald wattereus.
wattereus called upon the psv goalkeeper had to be alert again a minute later as darren ambrose threatened with a header and titus bramble should have put newcastle further ahead on 13 minutes when he miscued a header with only wattereus to beat.
kezman isolated psv were finding it difficult to string any passes together in midfield and on the rare occasions the ball made its way towards lone striker kezman, the serbo-montenegrin invariably found himself outnumbered by a resolute newcastle defence. instead the home side continued to press forward looking for a second and on 32 minutes jermaine jenas surged forward from midfield but his left-foot shot was straight at wattereus.
jenas just over poor defending at a set-piece almost cost psv another goal six minutes before half-time. again the danger came from a robert corner but jenas, who was unmarked at the back post, could only loop a header over the crossbar.
attacking change having seen his side fail to manage a single shot on goal in the first half, hiddink opted to change his personnel at half-time replacing the ineffectual rommedahl with jan vennegoor of hesselink. the attacking substitution appeared to revitalise psv and within seven minutes of the restart they had equalised.
kezman converts ji-sung park broke into the penalty area but his progress was halted by olivier bernard's trip and the referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot. kezman stepped up and fired his shot to shay given's right to bring the tie level once again. lifted by their equaliser, the dutch side pressed newcastle back and began to exert some pressure on the home defence for the first time.
second header the game was flowing from end to end now and on 66 minutes newcastle took the lead for the second time on the night. once again psv were exposed by vulnerability to corner-kicks and speed was allowed to rise unchallenged at the back post to crash another header past wattereus. psv strove bravely for a way back into the game, but the home side held firm to progress.
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