Newcastle bid to complete Champions League resurrection
Newcastle United will attempt to complete a remarkable recovery after losing their opening three Champions League games by qualifying for the second group phase on Wednesday.
Bobby Robson's English side must beat Feyenoord in the Netherlands and hope Dynamo Kiev fail to win against already-qualified Juventus in the other Group E match in Ukraine.
Dynamo start the night with seven points, one more than Newcastle, with Feyenoord on five. The Dutch team will go through if they beat Newcastle and Kiev lose.
Whatever happens, the team that finishes third will have the consolation of a UEFA Cup spot and the side that ends up bottom will be left with nothing.
"It is in our hands, and then in another way it isn't," Newcastle striker Alan Shearer told his club's website.
"We have to make sure we concentrate on the job in hand, because if we get side-tracked by the other game we could end with nothing.
"It is frustrating when we look back at the first three games where we took no points, but then again it speaks volumes that we still have a chance of qualifying in the last game."
"We can hope for the best, and fear for the worst."
SEETHING UNITED
Three teams are still in contention in Group H, which has been dominated by Barcelona who have won all five of their games so far.
Club Bruges (five points), Galatasaray (four) and Lokomotiv Moscow (four) are all in contention for the second spot.
Galatasaray, the 2000 UEFA Cup winners, were strongly fancied to qualify at the start of the competition but the Turks are on the brink. They must win at Barcelona and hope Club Bruges do not taste victory in Moscow.
In Group G Deportivo Coruna of Spain will join already qualified AC Milan in the second phase if they win in the San Siro.
Depor have a two-point lead over French side RC Lens, who will qualify if they win at eliminated Bayern Munich and the Spaniards lose. Should Lens win and Depor draw, the calculators will come out as the head-to-head games between the two both finished 3-1 to the home side.
Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen, finalists last season, have already qualified from Group F so they are playing for top spot at Old Trafford.
United, their manager Alex Ferguson seething after the embarrassing derby defeat to Manchester City last weekend, need only a draw to be sure of top spot and a seeded berth in Friday's second phase draw.
Greek side Olympiakos Piraeus will have to beat Israeli visitors Maccabi Haifa by more than three goals to pip them for the UEFA Cup spot.
