Feyenoord’s title win great news for Mcinnes as Dons skip Europa League duty until mid-july
Former Rangers midfielder Giovanni van Bronckhorst did Aberdeen a favour yesterday when his Feyenoord side lifted the Dutch Eredivisie title.
Feyenoord’s first championship success in 18 years had a knock-on effect to Scotland’s Europa League participants and means that the Dons – who are as good as guaranteed to finish second in the Premiership – will start their season in the second qualifying round of the European competition instead of the first qualifying round.
So, rather than beginning their 2017/18 season on Thursday 20 June, Aberdeen will not be in competitive action until Thursday 13 july. what’ s more, Derek Mcinnes’s side will be seeded for the draw, which takes place on Monday 19 June (the same day that Rangers and St Johnstone will discover their first qualifying round opponents).
The extra two weeks’ holiday will come as a significant boost to Mcinnes and his squad, who won’t complete this season’s work until the final whistle sounds in their Scottish Cup final against Celtic on Saturday 27 May.
It has been a hectic few years for Aberdeen after qualifying for the preliminary stages of the Europa League for the past three seasons.
Their current campaign started on 30 June against Luxembourg outfit Fola Esch; the season before that it kicked off in Macedonia on 2 July against Shkendija; and the 2014/15 campaign started on 3 July against Daugava Riga from the Latvian league.
Extending Aberdeen’s close season by a couple of weeks will, of course, have been the furthest thing from the minds of the Feyenoord players and manager Van Bronckhorst as they celebrated at De Kuip stadium following yesterday’s 3-1 win against Heracles Almelo.
Dirk Kuyt, the 36-year-old ex-liverpool striker, scored a hat-trick. He hit his 100th goal for the club in the first minute to settle nerves throughout Rotterdam, doubled the lead in the 12th, then put the result beyond doubt with a penalty kick shortly before the end.
Ajax, poised to pounce if Feyenoord slipped up, beat Willem II 3-1 but had to settle for the runners-up spot.