By Tyne-Talk
March 31 2013

Newcastle United's Tim Krul, Davide Santon and Massadio Haidara could all return for their trip to Lisbon this week, when they face Benfica in the Europa League. Rob Elliot has been a fantastic replacement for Krul, after the dutchman was sidelined with an ankle injury, and despite defeats on his watch, Elliot has been outstanding, proving he is a more than adequate replacement when called upon. The same cannot be said for the rest of the team who are struggling to contend with the number of injuries the club are currently carrying.

Haidara's return would be a huge boost for the side, whilst Santon has been fairly consistent all season.

Cheik Tiote, Hatem Ben Arfa and Fabicio Coloccini are all unavailable, as is Mathieu Debuchy and Yoan Gouffran.

Pardew said that the League was a priority in his post Manchester City defeat interview and that the Europa League cannot detract from their domestic campaign. He said;

"We have done well in the Europa League, but it can't detract from the Premier League. We have to make sure we are safe.

We need two victories at least, and maybe a third or a fourth to get ourselves into a strong position.

The Europa League is going to put us under pressure, because we are missing some big players at the moment.

But we didn't do ourselves any favours against City because we were not aggressive enough."

Haidara, Krul & Santon Return Could Boost Benfica Game

Discussion started by TyneTalk (IP Logged), 31/03/2013 19:29

TyneTalk
31/03/2013 19:29

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annie
31/03/2013 20:07

I hope that happens because we certainly need them.

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