Magpies steal win against nine-man Olympiacos

Olympiacos 1 Newcastle 3

Newcastle continued their march towards the UEFA Cup quarter-finals as Olympiacos collapsed in Greece.

The home side had Grigorios Georgatos and Athanasios Kostoulas sent-off before half-time, by which time the visitors had taken a 2-1 lead with an Alan Shearer penalty and Laurent Robert free-kick either side of Predrag Djordjevic’s spot-kick.

Patrick Kluivert made it 3-1 21 minutes from time after a great run by substitute James Milner.

Olympiacos worked tirelessly for a way back into the tie as the clock ran down, but their lack of numbers made life comfortable for Newcastle.

Given maintained his concentration throughout to mop up whatever did get past his defenders to leave the Magpies in the driving seat for the return at St James’ Park next Wednesday night.