11 April, 2013 - 13:05

Pardew: we should play like Barcelona to beat Benfica

Pardew: we should play like Barcelona to beat Benfica

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew urged his players to bend every effort to overturn two-goal deficit and eliminate Benfica from Europa League at St. James’ Park.

Newcastle are facing Benfica in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final trailing by two goals, after losing 3-1 in Portugal. Pardew said that in order to outplay Benfica the players should try and match Barcelona’s performance, as they were the only side to beat the Portuguese side by two clear goals back in October.

He said: “There’s only one team which has beaten them by two clear goals, and that’s Barcelona, so that’s the size of the task, so we are under no illusions there. “That’s the quality we are up against. I don’t think there are going to be many better sides that have played here than Benfica. They have a slightly different style to a Premier League team. They have some fantastic technical players - Gaitan, Rodrigo, Cardozo and Lima.

“They have a real, real threat on the counter-attack, and the game could get away from us - it could easily get away from us - so we have got to be very much on our guard that we approach it in the right manner, give ourselves a chance and try to get us to the end of the game in a position where we can get it back. I would still feel confident two goals down with 10 minutes to go, the way that we are and the potential we have in the group, and the way I can affect it off the bench,” he added

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Author: Basil Naumov

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