Kennedy motivated by chance to face Sporting

Aberdeen wing er Mat ty Kennedy admits the prospect of facing Sporting Lisbon is a major source of motivation ahead of their trip to Norway. A visit to the Portuguese cap - it al a waits the winners of Thursday’s Europa League tie between Viking Stavanger and the Dons.

Aberdeen comfortably qual

ified for the second qualifying round with a 6- 0 victor y over NSI Runavik of the Faroe Islands last month and Kennedy savoured his European debut.

Thursday’s tie represents a major jump in levels though.

Like the D ons, who have won five matches in a row, Viking go into the game in good form. The Norwegians

are unbeaten in five league games and won their third in a row on Saturday when they beat Kristiansund 5-3. Kennedy, pictured, said :“Them an ager was showing us clips of the op po sition and they will have good players, they are in Europe for a reason, we will need to be on our game.

“We all want to play against

Sporting Lisbon, we all know how big a club they are. We need to concentrate on the first game and hopefully we will get there.

“Playing in Europe was one of the reasons why I came to Aberdeen.

“I really enjoyed the game against Runavik which was my debut in Europe, I can’t wait to play the next game, if the gaffer picks me.”