Wrap up warm

Despite a season of struggle, Newcastle Utd have reached the last-16 of Europe's second tier competition, where they face a Dutch master manager.  This was 2007 when Glenn Roeder was manager and the last time prior to this season that the Magpies were in European competition.  Then Newcastle stayed up but Roeder quit almost as the season was finished.  They faced off against Louis van Gaal, a Champions League winner with Ajax in 1994 and who would go on to reach the final with Bayern Munich in 2010, who was then in charge of Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.  After a 4-2 win on Tyneside, the Black-and-Whites succumbed 2-0 away and went out on the away goals rule, confirming what the coach at Zulte Waregem, United's previous opponents had said when the Toon had eliminated them - Newcastle are good but "van Gaal is the master."

Fast forward to 2013.  Despite a season of struggle, Newcastle Utd have reached the last-16 of Europe's second tier competition, where they face a Dutch master manager.  Alan Pardew is in charge and though the position is uncomfortable, it is not as precarious as it was at the start of January.  Newcastle will probably scrape safety but, unless something exceptional happens, Pardew will remain manager, tied down as he is to 2020 (ostensibly).  The Magpies now confront 'Golden' Guus Hiddink, a European Cup winner in 1988 with PSV Eindhoven and a successful manager virtually everywhere he has been.  Hiddink now helms Anzi Makhachkala, whose second name sounds like someone clearing their throat, who finished second in the Russian league last year and are bankrolled by a billionaire that has allowed them to bring in the likes of Samuel Eto'o and, until recently, Christopher Samba, paying them incredible wages to tempt them there.  UEFA have barred them from playing in their Dagestan fastness, on account of the 'security situation', arguably an internal civil war between militant Islamists and the Kremlin.  Instead, they will line up on the artificial turf of Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.  The centrepiece of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, 'The Meadows' staged the 2008 Champions League final where Manchester United beat Chelsea on penalties and will host the Final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Finals.  Playing more than a thousand miles away from their home ground should not prove insurmountable to Anzi's players as most of them live and train in Moscow anyway, flying in for 'home' games.  Though the Anzi support will be small, the Toon Army contingent will be miniscule, with visa hindrances a major problem.  In addition, the temperature will vary from a 'high' of 0 degrees celsius to a low of -11.

This is not the first time the Magpies have faced Hiddink in Europe, beating his PSV side (in his second spell) 3-2 on aggregate, but then that was under the equally well-travelled Sir Bobby Robson, a man who matched Hiddink's feat in leading his national side to 4th at a World Cup (England, 1990; the Netherlands, 1998).  British pundits are betting on the Tynesiders prevailing but I'm not so sure, even (or maybe especially) over two legs.  Hiddink is a genius who really can a sow's ear into a silk purse.  The only hope is that the winter (and season) break has dulled Anzi's edge - a perennial stumbling block for Russian teams progressing in European competition, though once hurdled they can go quite far. Even were Newcastle to proceed to the next round, the threat of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur lurk, arguably the two strongest teams left in the Europa League.  Whatever happens, Newcastle will break new ground tonight playing in Russia for the first time, making it something of a curio that they have played in the Ukraine three times previously (or maybe not given the comparative strengths of the Ukrainian league versus the Russian one).