Happy Robson admits Juve reliance

After watching his Newcastle United FC side come from behind to win beat FC Dynamo Kyiv, Sir Bobby Robson had to face up to the fact that his team's UEFA Champions League destiny was not in their own hand.

Relying on Juventus
Newcastle's progress depends not only on them winning away to Feyenoord in their last game in Group E but also on the already-qualified Juventus FC taking something at FC Dynamo Kyiv - and the Italians have not won away in Europe in 18 ties.

Manager's hope
Robson admitted after the victory that he is relying on Juventus not doing the same as Manchester United FC by resting several players only to lose. "We have one match to play, Kyiv have a home match, Juventus are through," the Newcastle manager said. "Will they [Juventus] do what Manchester United did today? I don't know. That will have a big bearing on it, of course. I can't dictate or legislate for what other clubs will do."

Dynamo boost
Certainly the victory by Juventus against Feyenoord was much better for Dynamo than Newcastle, visiting coach Olexiy Mykhaylychenko conceding: "I can't say it's not a good result for us, that wouldn't be true."

Robson praise
With two fine back-to-back victories against Juventus and Dynamo under their belts, Robson praised his team's effort. "I cannot compliment the players enough for their honesty and enthusiasm, and we've come back from being one down," he said.

Mykhaylychenko defiant
Naturally, Mykhaylychenko had a different view on the matter. "We haven't deserved the defeat tonight," he said. Certainly few among the 40,000 crowd would have given Newcastle much chance of winning at the end of the first half, never mind two minutes after the interval when Maksim Shatskikh gave Dynamo a deserved lead.

'We never gave up'
But Newcastle dug in, and Gary Speed's diving header and Alan Shearer's 68th-minute penalty turned the game. Robson acknowledged: "When Speed headed the equaliser there was still a long way to go, but we never gave up, just kept battling on. The last three minutes seemed like an eternity."

Double blow
The loss of Newcastle's two central defenders, Titus Bramble and Andy O'Brien to injury during the game did not help. "It put us in a difficult position to be honest," said Robson, "because it took away two attacking options that I had in my head to try to win the game." Nikolaos Dabizas and Olivier Bernard were the two players who filled the void.

'He's the calmest'