The Eagles eventually soared into the last four of the Europa League on Thursday, but only after a stern test of character from a Newcastle side who came rather closer to achieving the required result than many had expected. 

Under pressure to preserve the club's membership of the far more lucrative Premier League, this game had been widely portrayed as the least important of the week's trio of home games. And with injuries and availability of players complicating the picture, few expected Alan Pardew to start with his first XI despite the previous Sunday's league victory. 

The manager had spoken of it being a fourteen man test - a nod to the importance of utilising his three replacements to maximum effect - and although eyebrows were raised by the appearance of Gael Bigirimana in a wide right role, the pattern of the game was to endorse United's tactics. 

An instantly forgettable first half saw Benfica threaten an early goal through Lima and then almost catch Tim Krul off his line for the second game in succession, Massadio Haidara (in for the crocked Santon) returning to make a timely interception to deny Nicolas Gaitan on this occasion.

With the visitors looking to press at every opportunity, United were unable to find any rhythm and pattern to their play and repeatedly struggled to get out of their own half, save for aimless whacks forward. Moving into the final seconds of the half though and having mustered only a weak effort from Bigirimana, Papiss Cisse netted from close in - only to be correctly penalised for offside.

With Shola Ameobi appearing for the second half, United indulged in a pre-kick off huddle that was interpreted as a statement of intent and saw home supporters ramp up the volume still further. 

At the business end of a 180 minute tie, this fourth quarter would decide our fate for good or ill. The task was simple: score twice and preserve a third successive clean sheet here in this competition in order to progress to the semi-final stage.

However a lack of punch up front saw fans soon shouting for Hatem Ben Arfa to make his entrance, the Frenchman replacing Vurnon Anita and instantly providing a welcome threat down the right.

Cisse had the ball in the Benfica net once again with a neat finish but was well offside and duly penalised, before United's final change saw Sylvain Marveaux come on for Haidara. Conspicuous by his absence from the squad was Gabriel Obertan, with his consequent appearance in a reserve game less than 24 hours later confirming that he's been barred from the last chance saloon.  

Pardew had spoken of scoring by the 70 minute mark in order to set up a fighting finish and his wish was granted when Cisse finished from close range at the Gallowgate End, close enough in for even he not to have strayed offside. 

There was no elongated excursion into the crowd this time from the scorer, while his manager's celebrations was a brief clenched fist salute and then instructions to his coaches to simmer down. 

For all the pressure and possession that they enjoyed as the Portuguese league leaders were placed firmly on the back foot, United failed to seriously test Artur, their best chance seeing Ben Arfa force his way into the box before sending an 89th minute pile-driver high into the crowd. 

A hack on Marveaux then set up Yohan Cabaye for a free kick just outside the box in added time, but the captain capped a frustrating night by flicking his effort of the defensive wall and into the arms of a grateful goalkeeper.  

Having prospered on various occasions recently via an extra time goal, Newcastle's interest in this competition would be ended by a slick counter-attack and finish by Benfica, Salvio sliding the ball home to make it 1-1 and kill off United. Had he done that after we'd got a second (as we had privately predicted pre-match) that would have been a real kick in the plums, but if nothing else we retained our admirable home record in this competition. 

The equaliser prompted some to sneak out early, but most fans remained in their places to applaud both sides from the field when the final whistle sounded - something acknowledged by the visiting coach Jorge Jesus, who deliberately turned and applauded the Milburn Stand at full time.

For all the disappointment, the result was a fair one and there looked to be a recognition among home fans that they'd lost out to a genuinely talented side - beaten just twice in the last year (by Barcelona and Spartak Moscow) and arriving on Tyneside in search of a thirteenth successive win.

Spirit will only take you so far and the individual errors of the first leg ultimately proved to be insurmountable. Regardless of Pardew's team selection tonight, scoring twice and keeping a clean sheet was a very tall order indeed, even ignoring the Premier League tests that bookended it.

United's first European foray in six seasons ended at a respectable point in the competition and while domestic fixture alterations were a pain and the League Cup and FA Cup surrenders a source of much angst, the positives outweigh the negatives at this point - not least of which was giving the likes of Adam Campbell, Rob Elliot and Bigirimana some proper pitch time and match experience. 

The true cost of the dropped league points will only become evident at season's end though - and despite all of the warm words and handshakes, it's that which the manager will be judged on. 

There's a fine line between throwing caution to the winds and taking the proverbial to the point of making participation in the competition a nonsense and we just about straddled it (in years to come, the fact that Nile Ranger started in Bordeaux will be dismissed as a clerical error....) 

And from a purely personal perspective, the chance to swap Birmingham for Brugge and Manchester for Moscow was a welcome one, regardless of transport and paperwork issues. We like a challenge and anything has got to be better than spending time in desperate holes like Stoke. 

A new generation of toon fans have now sampled the unique and mostly pleasurable experience of seeing their side abroad and hopefully it's whetted their appetites for future adventures as much as the players - unless they've developed such a thirst for midweek games that they seek to continue the experience somewhere else in 2013/14 (players not fans, that is). 

We won't be playing European football next season, but after the experience of contending with no less than fourteen UEFA ties this time round, there's simply no reason why both domestic cup competitions can't be taken seriously, with first choice XIs selected.

Now let's go and stuff it right up that lot down the road to round off the week in fine style, in front of what will be a third 50,000+ Gallowgate crowd in eight days. 

Biffa