Exclusivo NGB: This is Newcastle United, by Ed Harrison.

Lançamos o desafio ao blogue The Newcastle United Blog de escrever um artigo sobre o embate entre Benfica e Newcastle para a Liga Europa.

O administrador do maior blogue de apoio ao Newcastle (com mais de 85.000.000 de visitas), 

Ed Harrison, de forma muito simpática e afável aceitou o nosso desafio.

Ed Harrison foi um executivo da IBM e dedicou 34 anos da sua vida a essa empresa, contribuindo decisivamente para o seu desenvolvimento. Poderão consultar a sua biografia AQUI.

O seu blogue é um exemplo em todos os sentidos. Aconselho todos não só a visitá-lo como a acompanhá-lo. Já está incluído no nosso blogroll em 'Outros Blogues'.

É uma honra para nós poder contar com a sua visão do Newcastle e do embate com o Benfica.

Obrigado Ed Harrison.

Um grande abraço desde Lisboa!

Aqui vai o seu artigo para todos nós:

"Newcastle were beaten 4-0 at Manchester City on Saturday, the reigning Premier League Champions, and currently second behind Manchester United in the Premier League and there is some consternation with our fans about the first leg tie against Benfica on Thursday night.

Yohan Cabaye – French International is probably our best player

Newcastle have now dropped to 6th bottom after we’ve lost our last two league games and are only 3 points above the drop zone, and there’s been discussion about how important the Europa League should be – but manager Alan Pardew will field his best side in the two legged tie.

We had seven players out injured on Saturday – Fabricio Coloccini, Cheick Tiote, Tim Krul Ben Arfa,Mathieu Debuchy, Davide Santon and Massadio Haidara, and the first six would be starters if they were fit – so we’re a bit decimated by injury at the moment.

Alan pardew expects Tim Krul, Davide Santon and Cheick Tiote to be available for the game in Lisbon on Thursday night.

Newcastle’s best players are Coloccini, Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye and Moussa Sissoko but only the last two will be fit for the two legs, with Coloccini out another two weeks with his back injury – and Ben Arfa probably out for the season, after the French International has played only twice since last November, because of a hamstring problem.

So Newcastle will not be at full strength on Thursday night, and the first half on Saturday was maybe the worst we’ve played all season – so we need to improve to match Benfica – that's for sure.

French International Yohan Cabaye is the captain with Coloccini out and he may be our best player.

Benfica of course are very well known in England as one of the best sides very season in Portugal, and they are a top club in Europe with a wonderful history, and I remember watching the England vs Portugal semi-final game in the 19966 World Cup, with the great Eusebio along with four other Benficaplayers in the Portuguese side.

So Newcastle fans are only too well aware of the might of Benfica, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed that Benfica are currently 4 points ahead of Porto in the Portuguese league and beat Rio Ave 6-1 on Saturday, and you are still unbeaten in the league this season.

Newcastle have great fan backing, and have always had that in our history, and we will have St. James’ Park sold-out for the second leg a week on Thursday and we expect 52,300 fans at the game – depending to some extent how we fare on Thursday night.

This is the first time Newcastle United have been in Europe since 2007, so this is the biggest European tie we’ve had for many years, and while we haven’t had a very good season in the Premier League, our average attendance at home is still over 50,000.

The first leg could be a struggle for us – and we’d be very happy with a draw – and then in the next tie we could have some of our better players back.

We hope to see two very good games on the next two Thursdays – and there’s just no way Newcastle will be under-estimating Benfica."