Last Updated: Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:42
Hatem Ben Arfa has urged Newcastle not to pass up the opportunity to continue their march into the Europa League quarter-finals.
The Magpies have endured an indifferent domestic season to date - victory over Stoke on Sunday would significantly ease any lingering fears over their Barclays Premier League status - but their progress in Europe has been, if not exactly serene, increasingly impressive.
They took on the challenge of big-spending Anzhi Makhachkala on the artificial pitch at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium in sub-zero temperatures and emerged with a 0-0 draw.
That gives them every chance of progressing when the two sides reconvene at St James' Park next Thursday evening, and Ben Arfa, who played in Russia for the first time in 12 weeks after recovering from a hamstring tear, is not ready for the adventure to end just yet.
He said: "We can now finish the job. Next week we have a great chance, we have the chance to win with our team.
"St James' Park will be a different game now. We were solid and we tried to keep the ball, but it was a night when we didn't have too many chances to score.
"I think 0-0 though is a good scoreline. We always prefer to score a goal or two, of course, but this gives us a good chance to get through."
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