SIR BOBBY ROBSON reckons Bayer Leverkusen's determination to avoid Champions League humiliation will work to Newcastle United's advantage tonight as they rely on the Germans to grant them a huge favour.

Leverkusen go into their BayArena encounter with Internazionale on the back of five second-stage defeats that have left them adrift at the foot of Group A.

Newcastle need last season's Champions League runners-up to take at least a point from their final game of a dispiriting European campaign to give them a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

And Robson believes Leverkusen's desire to rebuild their shattered image could prompt them to produce a much-improved display.

The Newcastle manager said: "Inter have many points, but Bayer Leverkusen have none. Zilch.

"I would think pride is at stake and they would want to get something out of the group. I would hope that's the case. Of course the match means something to Inter, but I'm hoping for a very good response from Bayer Leverkusen."

Robson wants his team to play in a St James' Park cocoon, oblivious to the scoreline at the BayArena.

He admits it will be a near-impossible task to stop news drifting from the stands on to the pitch, but Robson is keeping the squad focused on their match with Barcelona. He said: "There will be budgerigars and canaries singing all over the stadium all night.

"I can't silence every transistor radio because there will be a multitude of them, so I think the message will come to me.

"But we've got to keep it away from the players and just have them thinking of the 90 minutes against Barcelona.

"We need confidence and belief in what we can do and try to win this difficult game."

Robson was coy last night when Newcastle's famous 1997 Champions League win over Barcelona, in which Faustino Asprilla scored a hat-trick, was brought up.

He was still at Barca under the ambiguous job description of director of transfers after Louis van Gaal's arrival had seen him deposed as Barca coach. Robson said: "I had to divorce myself from that particular evening. Louis van Gaal was in charge and I didn't come to the team; I went somewhere else.

"It wasn't my right to be here with Barcelona that night because I wasn't the coach at the time."

* Arsene Wenger refused to get drawn into Sir Alex Ferguson's latest round of mind games and instead preferred to concentrate on Arsenal's defensive injury worries, writes NEIL SILVER.

The Gunners arrived in Spain yesterday afternoon for tonight's decisive Champions League clash against Valencia without goalkeeper David Seaman, Martin Keown (both hamstring) and Ashley Cole (hernia). Sol Campbell (Achilles) has only a 40 per cent chance of being fit according to Wenger and skipper Patrick Vieira (knee) is rated 50-50.

So the last thing Wenger - who will take charge of his 50th Champions League tie - needed was to have to answer Ferguson's latest jibes, after the Manchester United manager accused Arsenal of ''triumphalism'' in his latest war of words. ''I would not agree with Sir Alex,'' said Wenger. ''I would not say we have been triumphalist.

"We are confident, and there is a big difference.

"Everybody has an opinion and we respect Manchester United's a lot, but our self-belief and confidence are very high.