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Luke Edwards is Chief Sports Writer of The Journal and uses his blog to give a unique and entertaining insight into events at Newcastle United and Sunderland.

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Remember Birmingham City?

Posted by Luke on February 14, 2007 2:34 PM | 

Ah yes Belgium, the land of, erm flatness, famous for its, erm, let me think, oh yes chocolate and, and, and, erm, of course, how could I forget, being the home of the European Union.

If you ask your average - the ones who don't want an ASBO, quite like the idea of having a job and who aim to live above the poverty line sometime in their future - school children to point out on a map where Belgium is they would probably struggle because, well, let's face it Belgium isn't really renowned for anything is it?

Mind you, if you had asked the average Newcastle United fan whether they had heard of SV Zulte-Waregem before the draw for the last 32 of the Uefa Cup, most would not have had a clue either.

To be fair, neither did I, but I've done my research - sort of - since and, as I have a few hours to spare in a country widely, albeit slightly unfairly, believed to be the dullest in Europe, let me fill you in.

Waregem are a sort of Belgium equivalent of Wimbledon - not the MK Dons, but the Crazy Gang Wimbledon which ruffled the feathers of English football's so-called elite in the eighties and nineties.

They are a small, semi-professional club with a tiny ground - they have been forced to play Thursday night's game against Newcastle in Ghent - but they have a big reputation for causing upsets and beating Newcastle would be their biggest scalp yet.

So perhaps Newcastle's pampered millionaires should just remember that, if Newcastle were to come unstuck against a semi-professional outfit who play in a tin pot European league, United fans will probably go on the rampage looking for one of them to scalp on Friday morning!

Of course, we've had all the usual mutterings from players and manager about "no easy games in Europe" that they will not "under-estimate the opposition" and the importance of "proper preparation", but this has a rather uncomfortable feel about it.

Newcastle are expected to win and they are expected to win handsomely, but wasn't that also the case when Birmingham City came to St James's Park for an FA Cup Third Round replay? I'm sure I have no need to remind you what happened then, but the pain and humiliation is worth remembering when games like this come around. Complacency is an all too common failing in football and when inferior, but committed opposition, get a whiff of it in an opposition dressing room, anything can happen.

One upset in a season can be excused and put down to the magical unpredictable nature of football - oh and injuries, although Roeder would never use them as an excuse, never, ever, ever, ever, he just talks about them a lot - being dumped out of the Uefa Cup in similar fashion would not go down well.

It's probably time for me to mention the fact this is the club's last remaining chance of silverware this season - no the Intertoto Cup does not count - and that failure to lift the Uefa Cup at Hampden in May will mean the trophy drought goes into a 39th year, but you probably already knew that didn't you!

As for Belgium itself, quite nice actually, flat and a little French-like, but nice all the same.

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Comments (2)

Commulus wrote...

The intertoto cup was invented by the Belgian 'Herge' who's most famous character was Plastic Bertrand. I may have made that up though.'Ça Plane Pour Moi'

Posted by: Commulus  | February 14, 2007 3:40 PM

Chris wrote...

If Newcastle lose in Belgium there will be hell on.

The Uefa Cup is the only source of real excitement we have left

Posted by: Chris  | February 15, 2007 3:43 PM

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