Lotto Park awaits – The Union Saint-Gilloise v Newcastle preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Union Saint-Gilloise v Newcastle preview.

Wednesday 1st October – A 5.45pm kick-off (UK time)

The Toon travel to Belgium on Wednesday looking to get their Champions League campaign back on track after an unlucky defeat at home to Barcelona on matchday one.

Around one thousand Newcastle fans will be in attendance but up to four thousand are estimated to make the trip with or without tickets and will be welcome to take in the match in a designated fanzone.

Union SG will be hoping to continue their unbeaten start to the season and make it six points from two games in their first ever Champions League campaign.

Newcastle have only played one European match this season. We started on the front foot against Barcelona but failed to take our chances in the first half and were made to pay when Rashford scored a brace to put the Catalans two goals to the good. Gordon pulled one back but the Toon were unable to force an equaliser. Our last six matches in all competitions have seen two wins, two draws and two defeats, scoring seven goals and conceding five.

Union SG are on brilliant form so far this season. Their opening Champions League match saw a fine 3-1 victory away to PSV Eindhoven. In addition, their nine domestic league fixtures have seen seven wins and two draws, scoring nineteen and conceding just four.

Last time out

Newcastle hosted Arsenal on Sunday afternoon and were left frustrated by an agonising 2-1 defeat. The first half had the Toon Army dreaming of a famous victory when Arsenal had a penalty award overturned by VAR before Woltemade opened the scoring with a header at the Leazes End. The match remained on a knife edge throughout the second half but with the Toon still a goal to the good and just seven minutes left, it looked like we may have done just enough to achieve all three points. Unfortunately, a late header from former Toon player Merino levelled the match and ensured the next goal would be the winner. Newcastle fans and players were screaming for a penalty with just five minutes left but the referee was unmoved. That wasn’t the end of the drama as the Gunners scored from a ninety-sixth minute corner to condemn NUFC to our second injury-time defeat of the season.

Union SG hosted Walterlo in the Belgium Pro League on Saturday and scored two second-half goals to win the match 2-0. This has perpetuated an unbeaten start to their league campaign that has them currently top of the table with twenty-three points from just nine matches.

This is the first meeting between the two teams at any level.

Newcastle haven’t won an away European tie since a 1-0 victory over Kharkiv in 2013.

NUFC have travelled to Belgium five times in European competition, enjoying three wins, one draw and just a solitary defeat.

Memorable match

NUFC have never played Union SG before but have had a number of trips to Belgium in European competition. Let’s take a look at how Sir Bobby handled the start of our intertoto Cup campaign:

Newcastle travelled to Belgium in the first match of the epic 01/02 season as we played Sporting Lokeren in the Intertoto Cup. England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was in attendance with this being the first competitive match of any English team this campaign. A 14th July fixture meant we’d hardly had a pre-season but any notion of rustiness from United was dispelled by Wayne Quinn’s first goal for the club and a double from Shola Ameobi to put us 3-0 up before half-time. The second half was a more tame affair but Lua-Lua scored an absolute cracker near the end to make it four. His overhead kick was almost as good as his acrobatic celebration! We’d go on to win the second leg 1-0 to emphatically make the semi-final with a 5-0 aggregate victory Final Score Sporting Lokeren 0-4 Newcastle

Played for both

As no one has ever played for both teams, let’s talk about some Belgian players who have represented NUFC:

Philippe Albert signed for the Toon having impressed Kevin Keegan with a string of fine performances at the 1994 World Cup. Despite being a defender, he’d regularly bomb forward to good effect, scoring a number of important goals during his time at NUFC. A real fan favourite, perhaps his most memorable moment in a black and white shirt came in October 1996 when he lobbed Peter Schmeichel to put us five goals to the good against Man United. Other highlights include scoring a brace in a 3-3 draw at Maine Road and finding the net in a 7-1 Hammering of Tottenham Hotspur.

Matz Sels signed for Rafa Benitez in 2016 and made nine Championship appearances. He never really settled in the NUFC team and some well publicised clangers, most notably away at Aston Villa, led to him losing his place. A string of fine performances from Karl Darlow meant he was never able to fight his way back and he joined Anderlecht on loan before a six year spell at Strasbourg. He returned to England last season and is currently at Nottingham Forest.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a last-gasp 2-1 defeat at home to Arsenal:

“Two really late goals here at home hurts. We have to reflect and acknowledge that we weren’t at our best. There was not lack of effort but from a footballing side, it wasn’t quite there. That was probably the key thing, the number of corners. The weight of pressure eventually told. No lack of effort but the little details have cost us. I thought we tried. We gave everything to the game. It was really physical. I don’t think we were at our best today being honest – Arsenal played very well. We had our chances in the game and we took the lead and we were desperate to try and hang on to that lead. Nick Pope made some good saves for us but it wasn’t to be and we conceded set-pieces at the end which was so disappointing.”

Sébastien Pocognoli after a 2-0 win over Westerlo in the Belgium Pro League:

Charity

As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online go HERE.