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Hughes guarantees big crowd for return

Damian Spellman
Friday 27 July 2001 00:00 BST
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Newcastle will look to break their own Intertoto Cup record as they attempt to end 1860 Munich's European dreams on Wednesday.

The Magpies recorded the biggest crowd for the competition last Saturday when 29,021 turned up to watch them seal their semi-final berth with a 1-0 win over Sporting Lokeren.

In that game Newcastle failed to scale the heights they had done a week earlier when they gave themselves a commanding 4-0 first-leg lead.

But after a 3-2 win over the Germans in Bavaria on Wednesday, Bobby Robson's side have put themselves in the driving seat once again. Aaron Hughes' late winner was enough to give Newcastle a priceless advantage to take back to St James' Park. This time, however, there will be much more to play for in the second leg.

Peter Schmeichel faces a race against time to be fit for Aston Villa's return leg of the Intertoto Cup semi-final against Stade Rennais on the same night. Villa lost 2-1 in France on Wednesday without Schmeichel after the keeper pulled out with a recurrence of a calf injury.

Darius Vassell's last-minute goal prevented the night from being a complete disappointment after John Gregory's side after they found themselves two goals down courtesy of Severino Lucas and Cyril Chapuis.

Barry Town will need divine intervention this weekend after their 8-0 defeat by Porto in the Champions' League second qualifying round first leg in Oporto.

Anderson Deco recorded a first-half hat-trick as the 18-time Portuguese champions all but secured their passage with only a quarter of the tie played.

Rangers returned to Glasgow with a three-goal cushion that has snuffed out any threat Maribor posed to their Champions' League dream.

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