Pre-Season Friendly: Newcastle United 1 Braga 1

A Fabricio Coloccini header gained Newcastle United a 1-1 draw in their final pre-season friendly versus Braga at St James’ Park on Saturday.

An Alan penalty on the stroke of half-time gave the Portuguese side the lead at the break but the Newcastle captain headed home from a corner on the hour mark for Alan Pardew’s men.

Prior to the game, captains of both teams paid their respect to former Newcastle manager Bobby Robson, in honour of National Sir Bobby Robson Day, while latest signing Loic Remy was unveiled to fans.

The first chance of the game arrived after 19 minutes when Papiss Cisse attempted to curl an effort past Eduardo, but the goalkeeper was equal to it.

Shola Ameobi and Jonas Gutierrez threatened for the hosts with good link-up play that ultimately came to nothing, before Braga took the lead from the spot.

Mathieu Debuchy brought down the tricky Felipe Pardo in the box, with captain Alan slotting the penalty past Rob Elliot in the hosts’ goal.

Newcastle began the second half well, with Hatem Ben Arfa in particular looking dangerous, and it was the Frenchman who delivered the decisive corner.

The former Marseille winger crossed the ball in for Coloccini to score Newcastle’s first goal from a corner since October 2011.

The home side could have gone ahead three minutes later but Braga somehow cleared their lines after a goal-mouth scramble.

Substitute Yoan Gouffran had the ball in the net five minutes from time, again from a corner, only for it to be disallowed.

Next up for Pardew’s side is a trip to the Etihad Stadium on August 19 for their Premier League opener against Manchester City.