Temuri Ketsbaia was the hero of Tyneside last night as his extra-time goal put Newcastle into the Champions' League. The Georgian international came off the bench to score a last-minute equaliser on the night and give Newcastle a 4-3 aggregate victory.

Kenny Dalglish and his team now look forward to Friday's Champions' League draw after a magnificent rearguard display in front of a passionate Croatian crowd.

It looked as though Faustino Asprilla, Newcastle's Colombian striker, was going to be the hero until Igor Cvitanovic put the tie into extra time with a goal two minutes into injury time.

Asprilla had scored a first-half penalty, equalised by Dario Simic after 58 minutes, before centre-forward Cvitanovic's excellent finish.

Ketsbaia, who replaced Jon Dahl Tomasson 12 minutes into extra-time, scored his goal with less than 60 seconds of extra-time remaining.

David Batty intercepted a ball midway inside the Croatian half, played it into Asprilla on the edge of the home penalty box and when the Colombian laid it off to Ketsbaia, the Georgian beat goalkeeper Drazen Ladic from 10 yards to start amazing pitch-side celebrations and in the enclosure housing the 450 Geordie fans.

The home side took control early on and within 45 seconds could have levelled on aggregate.

Silvio Maric was put through at inside right but as Shay Given stood firm, the international midfielder fired straight at the Republic of Ireland goalkeeper.

United gradually came into the tie with their five-man midfield battling to try to create a chance for Asprilla.

Cvitanovic, Zagreb's first leg scorer, should have equalised in the 10th minute but, after creating an opening on the left, he fired inches past the far post.

Srdan Mladinic then smashed a brilliant effort against the Newcastle woodwork in the 16th minute.

Newcastle central defender Alessandro Pistone was having a brilliant game in the United defence as the Magpies gradually gained confidence.

John Beresford wasted a great chance to test the home defence in the 22nd minute after Asprilla was up-ended wide on the right, but the two-goal hero of the first leg fired straight at the home goalkeeper.

Newcastle suffered a blow on the half-hour when they lost England defender Stuart Pearce. The former Nottingham Forest left-back picked up his injury when making a brave block tackle on Maric 15 yards from his own goal. He was replaced by Steve Howey.

Three minutes on and Asprilla was in trouble when he elbowed Maric in the face, but the referee seemed to miss the incident.

Two minutes before half-time, Asprilla got the goal Newcastle were hoping for. The Colombian played in Tomasson, and as the Dane tried to round the goalkeeper defender Goran Juric upended him from behind.

Before Asprilla was able to coolly put away his penalty, Juric was shown the red card and Zagreb were down to 10 men with 47 minutes of the 90 remaining.

Zagreb equalised in the 58th minute when a left-wing free kick, swung over by Cvitanovic, was headed home by Simic from six yards at the far post.

Cvitanovic had a great opportunity to level the aggregate score four minutes on when Given produced a brilliant one-handed save to thwart the striker as he attempted to dribble around him.

It looked as if United were heading out of the competition when with only 10 seconds remaining, Cvitanovic was fed by Maric and he slotted the ball home low to Given's left from an acute angle to leave the home crowd in raptures.

The second period of extra-time saw both sides looking less and less likely to get that elusive winner, but Newcastle found inspiration from substitute Ketsbaia to seal a famous aggregate victory.