APOLOGISING to his team-mates for a costly error at the Estadio da Luz was at the forefront of his mind on Thursday night, but now Davide Santon is keen to make amends by helping to save Newcastle United's season.

As well as the return leg with Benfica, which could require three goals or more if the Portuguese league leaders score at St James' Park, there is also the matter of crucial back-to-back Premier League home dates.

If Newcastle can overcome both Fulham tomorrow and Sunderland a week later then it is likely to have safeguarded their position in the top-flight for a further year. Lose both and suddenly the threat of Championship football will become a real possibility - again.

Newcastle's players are in no doubt about the value of coming away with positive results in the next week or so, just 12 months after they were battling for a top four spot at this stage.

Santon said: “For us the Europa League is important, but the Premier League is even more important. We have to make sure against Fulham and then against Sunderland, two games at home, we have to win them both. We need to make sure we save our season and that we stay in the Premier League.”

Santon – who is reportedly interesting Russia club Zenit St Petersburg as well as AC Milan - was still thinking of his error on the flight back from Lisbon yesterday, knowing his badly-timed and placed back pass towards Tim Krul was a game changing moment.

Despite Benfica's attacking quality they had found it hard to really get in behind the Newcastle defence to add to Rodrigo's first half goal which cancelled out Papiss Cisse's tenth minute opener.

But then Santon rolled a pass in to the path of Brazilian substitute Lima, who simply rounded Krul before applying the clever finish from a tight angle.

“I am feeling angry with myself,” admitted Santon, 22. “I think I had a good game but that pass was a disaster. As a defender you have to make sure your pass is right.

“I had to make sure the pass was right and when I passed the ball, I had Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa near me so I couldn't see the striker. It was really annoying. I am really angry with myself and when I got in to the dressing room I said 'sorry' to everybody, to all the players, because it was my fault.

“Now we have to forget about Thursday night. I have to forget my mistake and think about Sunday, next week and we need to score two goals against Benfica.

“I was really disappointed with what happened, but I have to forget. I can't play well all of the time and I know I didn't do well, I made the mistake.”

Newcastle have already been written off in some sections of the Portuguese media on the back of the scoreline from the first leg, but Newcastle will not be dismissing their Euro dreams just yet.

Santon said: “We will not be giving up on Thursday against Benfica, we are not giving up on the Europa League overall either. We had a lot of chances against Benfica, so it is even more frustrating that we conceded goals like we did.

“Papiss hit the post twice. Had either of those goals gone in then it would have been a completely different game and situation.

“We are a little bit unlucky to be two goals down. This is football. When we missed a couple, they then scored and then it went like it did. But we can still do it next week because we have that away goal.”