UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Leverkusen v Newcastle. The players and staff of Newcastle United will be blowing out the candles today for Bobby Robson, who turns 70, and Jermaine Jenas, 20. "Just a slight difference," said Robson as Newcastle flew out.
Any remaining chance of Bayer Leverkusen's Klaus Toppmoller retaining his job as manager was blown out by their 2-1 defeat by Hansa Rostock on Saturday.
Their fifth consecutive defeat left them fourth from bottom of the league, above the relegation places only on goal difference.
A year ago Leverkusen were on their way to topping a Champions League second stage group which included Arsenal and Juventus. They were to beat Liverpool in the quarter-finals and Manchester United in the semi-finals. They lost the final unluckily by only 2-1 to Real Madrid at Hampden Park.
Leverkusen also reached the German cup final and finished second in the Bundesliga.
Sadly, finishing runners-up in three competitions earned only the label Neverkusen.
Then came the fall.
Into the mess has stepped Thomas Horster, formerly youth coach, who turned up for his first day at work yesterday in a lumberjack's shirt. He has a heavy load.
"All this has come very fast," he said. Horster said he would like to pick his strongest 11 players, but Reiner Calmund, the all-powerful general manager, had other ideas.
Calmund announced that Schneider "will be dropped" and Oliver Neuville and Carsten Ramelow "should be rested".
The message over the last few weeks has been that the Champions League will be sacrificed for Bundesliga survival and Newcastle must profit from that if they are to stage a recovery similar to the first group stage when they lost their first three matches.
Once again, Robson is hindered by the suspensions of Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy and is likely to repeat his choice for the 3-1 defeat in Barcelona before Christmas when he started with Shola Ameobi and Lomana LuaLua.
In Group A's other match this evening, Barcelona coach Radomir Antic finds himself in the enviable position of being just one victory away from a Champions League record against Inter Milan.
Antic took over at the Nou Camp at the end of January after a desperate run of domestic form cost Louis van Gaal his job.
While Barca struggled at home all season, they made perfect progress in Europe, racking up 10 successive victories to equal the winning run by AC Milan in the 1992-93 season.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
BAYER LEVERKUSEN: Butt; Zivkovic, Kleine, Cris, Ojigwe; Kaluzny, Balitsch, Babic, Basturk; Bierofka, Franca.
NEWCASTLE UNITED: Given; Hughes, Bramble, O'Brien, Bernard; Jenas, Dyer, Speed, Robert; Lua Lua, Ameobi.
On TV: TV3, UTV (highlights)
