Magpies' European wings are clipped

Newcastle's UEFA Cup dream turned into a nightmare in Portugal as Sporting Lisbon staged a magnificent fight-back to book their place in the semi-finals.

Kieron Dyer's 20th-minute strike put the visitors, who arrived in Portugal with a 1-0 first leg lead, firmly in the driving seat, but they failed to build upon it as chances went begging, and when they started to wilt, Jose Peseiro's men went for the kill.

Marius Niculae levelled five minutes before half-time with a powerful header, but with Titus Bramble and Kieron Dyer both limping off before the hour-mark and Graeme Souness' gamble to start with 18-year-old Frenchman Charles N'Zogbia backfiring, there was worse to come.

Sa Pinto levelled the tie with 19 minutes remaining and Roberto Beto's 77th-minute header gave Sporting an aggregate lead which grew in injury-time with Fabio Rochemback's finish.

Peseiro had predicted before the match that his side would score, that Newcastle would not and that the former would win, but he was only partially correct.

Sporting did indeed score, a powerful header by Romanian striker Niculae breaching Shay Given's defences five minutes before half-time, and they would have done so again four minutes later had the Irishman not thrown out a hand to deflect away a rocket of a volley from Joao Moutinho.

However, before that flurry of activity, emergency striker Dyer had put the Magpies ahead on the night and 2-0 on aggregate, running away from defender Anderson Polga and cheekily slipping the ball through keeper Ricardo's legs to send the travelling fans into raptures.

As the half-time whistle sounded, the visitors knew they were close at 1-1 on the night, but also that they had an immensely difficult 45 minutes ahead of them, and so it proved.

With just 19 minutes left on the clock, Barbosa fired in a shot which Given could only parry and Sa Pinto tapped home the rebound to set up an agonising finale.

It got worse for Newcastle with 13 minutes remaining when defender Beto climbed high to power a header past Given from a Rochemback corner, and now the visitors were on the verge of elimination.

Souness' side threw everything they had at their hosts with time fast running out, but they were toothless and their fate was sealed in injury-time when Rochemback capitalised on an error by Stephen Carr to make it 4-1 on the night.