The only goal of the game came in the 39th minute when Laurent Robert broke down the left and crossed for Alan Shearer who was clearly impeded as he went for goal, but as the captain appealed for a penalty Nobby latched on to the cross at the far post and rammed the ball home.
But Partizan Belgrade came back strongly and Given produced a string of vital saves to preserve our narrow lead, including a point-blank injury time block from Milan Stojonski.
In between Given’s saves Woodgate commanded the defence, strong in the tackle and unbeatable in the air he showed once again that he is the best central defender in England.
The pace of Bellamy was a constant menace to the Partizan defence but in the main it was a classic away European performance - snatch a goal and defend the lead, the Liverpool side of the seventies and eighties would have appreciated this one.
It was far from pretty, but it was a sign that we have learnt how to play in European ties where the result is everything.
Afterwards Sir Bobby was full of praise for Given and Woodgate.
"Overall, he (Given) was outstanding," he said. "He made some good collections of the ball, he was very sharp off his line and he caught the ball well on crosses and naturally at the end, he made an incredible save.
"The player didn't hit a good shot. It was a good opportunity for him. He had all of the goal to aim for, so it was a bit of luck for us. But it was still a very good save."
About Woodgate he added: "He was outstanding until the last 10 minutes, when he became physically tired. I nearly took him off, actually.
"But in the first half, he made some outstanding clearances with his head. He dealt with a lot of terrific crosses and his command of the penalty area was outstanding for us. He was a lighthouse for us.
"He tired towards the end there, but we were 1-0 up and he wasn't quite giving me the signal that he wanted to come off, but I could see him.
"But he stuck at it and he saw the game out. He hasn't trained very much, he hasn't played very much, so it was a big performance from him."
Partizan aren’t giving up though, as their coach Lothar Matthaus explained.
“In football, anything can happen and we will try to take our chances better at Newcastle and give it a real go,” he said.
"The tie is only over after the game in Newcastle. We need things to go for us and maybe with a little bit of luck, we can get a 1-0 win."
Teams:
Newcastle United: Given, Griffin, Solano (Jenas 83), O'Brien, Dyer, Shearer, Bellamy, Speed, Woodgate, Robert (Ameobi 65), Bernard.
Unused subs: Harper, Elliott, Hughes, Bramble, Chopra.
Partizan Belgrade: Kralj, Bajic, Dordevic, West, Cirkovic, Duljaj (Drulovic 46), Nand, Malbasa, Sasa Ilic, Delibasic (Stojanoski 69), Iliev.
Unused subs: Radakovic, Savic, Rzasa, Zavisic, Cakar.