Shinnie wants to make Euro memories with Aberdeen in Athens
CAPTAIN Graeme Shinnie has called on Aberdeen to give their travelling supporters a Conference League “night to remember” in Athens.
The 34-year-old is preparing for what will be his 28th European outing for the Dons over the course of his two spells when they face AEK in the hostile OPAP Arena this evening.
Shinnie pinpointed the 3-0 victory away to Croatian side Rijeka in 2015 and the 2-2 draw against PAOK in Greece as two of his best evenings on the continent, and now he wants to help last season’s Scottish Cup winners experience more delight in the Greek capital.
“I absolutely love these games, I’m really grateful that I’m still involved in games like this,” he said in a club interview. “I can’t wait.
“A lot of the boys have some sort of European experience behind them and I’ve had many occasions where we’ve gone to tough places, like Rijeka and PAOK.
“We’ve done well before so there’s no reason why we can’t go and do it again.
“AEK are a good team, we know their strengths and their weaknesses. We’ve watched a lot of them, we’ve done our work on the training ground and now it’s time to put it to fruition on the pitch and try and perform again on a European night.
“If you think back to last season and the cup final [against Celtic in May], not many people thought we were going to win that but we had 20,000 fans at that game who backed us and this is their reward now.
“They get to enjoy European trips, they love European trips and it’s up to us to try and give them a trip to remember.”
Shinnie knows Aberdeen – buoyed by back-to-back victories in the William Hill Premiership – will have to be ultra-focused if they are to get their Conference League campaign up and running after losing their opener 3-2 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk.
“It’ll be very hostile which is good, it’s something we should thrive on,” he said. “We’ll need concentration at all times, the atmosphere will be electric, so it’s about having that composure in a foreign stadium, to be well organised and defend well.
“That’s always the case against these good teams and if we can do that, we know we’ve got the firepower up front to go and hurt teams.”
Shinnie believes Aberdeen are ready to prove that their attacking quality is “through the roof” after overcoming an early-season scoring drought in recent matches.
“There’s so many options, we’ve got so much quality and that’s been the frustrating part in the early part of the season where we weren’t scoring goals,” he said.
“The pressure was then on to try and keep clean sheets and we were conceding goals and losing games and it was frustrating.
“Now we’ve started keeping clean sheets and that gives the front players the opportunities to go and win the games for us, like Marko [Lazetic] did against St Mirren.”
Meanwhile, James Penrice believes his old Hearts team-mates will be quietly confident that they can mount a title challenge – even if they are not saying so publicly.
The left-back was a standout in a Jambos side that underperformed last year, finishing seventh in the William Hill Premiership, before earning his move to AEK Athens in the summer.
Penrice has watched from afar as several of his former colleagues have helped Hearts move five points clear of Celtic at the top of the table, and he revealed that midfielder Beni Baningime sent him a message on Tuesday night joking, “look what happens when you leave”.
Asked if his old team could become the first side outside the Old Firm to win the Scottish top flight since 1985, the 26-year-old said: “I don’t see why not. It’s obviously something that’s not happened in Scottish football for a while, but me knowing what’s in the dressing room there, they’ll be more than up for it.
“They probably won’t say they’re in a title challenge now, but you look at the quality that they’ve brought in, the players that are performing now at such a high level, so definitely.
“It’s something that we’re not used to in Scottish football, but hopefully they do it. They’ve got a massive game on Sunday [at home to Celtic] and I’m wishing them all the best for that.”