Eintracht Frankfurt 0, Newcastle United 0:Newcastle United will head into the last 32 of the Uefa Cup as Group H winners after claiming a hard-fought point in Germany last night.
The visitors were under siege for much of the game and had Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given to thank for a superb, 25th-minute save from Albert Streit, and Steven Taylor for a series of vital blocks.
However, they were also indebted to the poor finishing of Greek striker Ioannis Amanatidis, who wasted the best two chances of the game, and the impressive Noahiro Takahara, who lobbed agonisingly over the bar with four minutes remaining.
The draw extended Newcastle's unbeaten run to six games in all competitions, and 12 in cup ties this season.
They might even have won it when Antoine Sibierski saw his 61st-minute header hacked off the line.
Had it not been for the brilliance of Given, Glenn Roeder's men might have been trailing at the break. On 25 minutes Swiss international Benjamin Huggel carved them open with a precise pass to Markus Weissenberger. He delivered the perfect cross from the right for the unmarked Streit to head for goal, only for Given to block with his legs before Titus Bramble and James Milner hustled the ball away.
EINTRACHT FRANKFURT:Proll, Vasovski, Kyrgiakos, Spycher, Rehmer (Ochs 64), Streit, Huggel, Weissenberger, Takahara, Amanatidis (Fink 78), Kohler. Subs not used: Nikolov, Cimen, Reinhard, Russ, Huber. Booked: Streit, Amanatidis, Huggel.
NEWCASTLE UTD:Given, Ramage, Bramble, Taylor, Solano, Emre, Milner, Butt, N'Zogbia, Sibierski, Luque (Martins 59). Subs not used: Forster, Huntington, Pattison, Carroll, Edgar, Troisi. Booked: Solano, Taylor.
Referee:Pedro Proenca (Portugal).
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