published: thursday 22 november 2012, 23.00cet newcastle united fc 1-1 cs marítimo
the english side relinquished pole position in group d, but a point was sufficient to book their place in the uefa europa league round of 32.
newcastle united fc ceded pole position in group d, but a 1-1 draw with cs marítimo booked their place in the uefa europa league round of 32.
these teams proved inseparable on matchday one and again marítimo proved equal to the magpies, with fidélis scoring 11 minutes from time to cancel out sylvain marveaux's first-half opener.
marítimo's romain salin had to beat away a stinging effort from davide santon and tim krul was tested from range by sami in an early flurry of activity. yet there was little more action of note until newcastle took the lead on 23 minutes.
hatem ben arfa coaxed marveaux into the penalty area and the winger did the rest, opening up his body and using the cluster of players in the middle as a decoy before tucking the ball through salin's legs. alan pardew's men then saw out the rest of a subdued first 45 minutes, but, with ben arfa and papiss cissé limping off for the hosts either side of the interval, marítimo took the initiative.
shortly after the restart, krul's palms were stung by danilo dias' swerving shot from distance and the marítimo man soon had the keeper scrambling again as another effort swung just off-target. a stretching sammy ameobi almost poked in steven taylor's flick-on in a rare newcastle attack, but krul was soon back in action, palming wide from rúben ferreira.
the goal the visitors had threatened duly arrived. bursting into the area, fidélis skipped past steven taylor and fired smartly between krul's legs from an acute angle. tails up, the visitors besieged newcastle in search of the win they needed to keep their hopes alive, and fidélis went close to winning it at the death. the home side held on and will travel to fc girondins de bordeaux to tussle for top spot on matchday six.
