Alan Shearer kept alive Newcastle's dreams of reaching the quarter finals of the Champions League with a first half hat-trick to demolish Bayer Leverkusen. The 32-year-old, who had been forced to sit out the trips to Barcelona and Leverkusen through suspension, took out his frustrations on the Germans on his return, heading home on five and 11 minutes and then blasting a 35th-minute spot-kick past Jorg Butt.
It was Shearer's first United hat-trick since he claimed five in an 8-0 thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday at St James' Park in Sir Bobby Robson's first home game in charge on September 19, 1999, and took his total for the season to 21.
United now have six points to take into their final Group A matches against Inter Milan in Italy in a fortnight's time and Barca at St James' Park later next month, but they have at least given themselves a chance, much to the delight of a crowd of 40,508.
Marko Babic claimed his side's 73rd-minute goal after linking well with the impressive Yildiray Basturk to leave coach Thomas Horster wondering what might have been had Shay Given not kept out Oliver Neuville's 20th-minute penalty.
Filed by Johnny Proby
