Newcastle boss Sir Bobby Robson last night spoke of his 'tremendous pride' in defeat at the hands of Juventus at the Stadio Delle Alpi.

The Magpies are still without a point or a goal in the Champions' League after three Group E games.

And a double strike by Juve's inspirational captain Alessandro Del Piero virtually killed off any hopes of Robson's side qualifying for the second phase of the competition.

European campaigner Robson insists his youthful outfit must throw off their inferiority conplex if they are to eventually make their mark in Continental combat.

Nevertheless, Robson was pleased with his side's efforts. He declared: "We can have tremendous pride in our performance. We were never outplayed and we might have got a point.

"We just lost to two clever goals. Defensively we will have to get better and we have to learn not to feel inferior to a side like Juventus.

"We have good players ourselves and Kieron Dyer's performance made him as good a player as any to watch in this game.

"I decided to play Dyer in a loose role up front and he proved very elusive. I don't think they knew where he was coming from."

And Robson promised that Newcastle will give Juve a searching test in the return clash at St James' Park in three weeks' time.

Robson said: "You are not out until you are out. We had to try to get a point on the board, but football is a tough, cruel game - it kicks you in the teeth. But they know that we will give them a hard game at our place.

"We can't quibble about the result. We made a few silly mistakes and always had to defend well. But we produced a bit on the counter-attack and we were always in with a shout.

"But you can't do anything about a free kick like the one Del Piero scored - it changed the game. It was Nikos Dabizas's challenge and Del Piero dived a little bit. I said to the bench 'If we get out of this it will be a miracle.'

"With players like him and David Beckham and Ronaldo, they score from that sort of position 90 per cent of the time."

Meanwhile, match referee Rene Temmink admitted he had made a mistake in disallowing a headed goal by Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer just three minutes after Del Piero opened the scoring.

Juventus boss Marcello Lippi admitted he was not surprised by Newcastle's committed display and was grateful for the individual brilliance of match-winner Del Piero.

''The result for Newcastle actually does not tell the truth,'' he said. ''I saw Newcastle play very well against Feyenoord at home when they didn't deserve to lose.

''They have a hard-working forward in Alan Shearer who touches a lot of balls both for himself and his other teammates. They have very good players from a tactical point of view like Robert, Solano and Dyer.

''I like Newcastle very much. To beat Newcastle, we needed two wonderful goals from Del Piero."

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