GIVE US A SPORTING CHANCE
Del urges Dons to put Viking to sword and book a trip to Lisbon
DEREK McINNES is convinced if his Aberdeen team can time their Viking raid right they can grab Europa League gold and can go on to plunder Portugal in the next round.
The Dons’ scouting team have been doing their homework on Viking Stavanger for weeks and McInnes has left no stone unturned in his dossier on Thursday’s Euro opponents. The boss reckons his team have what it takes to stand up to the Norwegians’ expansive game and then have the firepower to see them off on the counter-attack. McInnes said: “It’s going to be a tough game on a plastic pitch against a capable side but we look forward to testing ourselves. And the motivation for both is the opportunity to go to Portugal and take on Sporting Lisbon which is something really worth working for.
“We’ll get a good handle on them this week but there will be no surprises come kick-off and we’ll try to get the job done over there.
“They play 4-3-3, with a one and a two in midfield and they have good attacking players. “They have a young backline but having looked at the in-depth reports they are a team who make the game open and have a real attacking threat. It’s important we get the balance right between attacking and defending.” McInnes believes his team have pace in all areas and even at the back they are looking rock-solid with another clean sheet at the weekend against Kilmarnock. He added: “When you select a team as we did on Saturday, it’s exciting when it’s right and there was a lot of speed and width in the team.
“There is a trade off with that and you need to defend a bit more which we are happy to at times as long as we do the right thing.”
Aberdeen have a few bumps and bruises from the weekend. Ross McCrorie came off and left with an ice-pack round his knee while Andrew Considine felt his hamstring. But McInnes said: “I probably should have taken Ross off a bit earlier.
“His running had been affected by the knocks he had picked up. But I think he’ll be fine. Andy felt his hamstring a bit at the start of the second half but it came to nothing. We should be as we are going into the game in Norway.”
McInnes is delighted with the re-emergence of Scott Wright. The winger is getting a run in the team and his boss said: “The way Scott is at the minute you feel like something is going to happen. He is one of many players just now who is feeling confident in their own game, you can see it in his training, and he has taken that into his games.”
Viking have a a defensive crisis ahead of Thursday’s tie, with doubts over keeper Ivan Austbo and central defender Henrik Heggheim after both suffered injuries in the weekend win over Kristiansund.