Striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is fired up to face BK Hacken after fears his chance of playing in Europe again had gone.
The 30-year-old is set to face the Swedes in the Uefa Europa Conference League at Pittodrie on Thursday.
It will be the striker’s first Euro action since featuring for Arsenal in the Champions League more than a decade ago.
Emmanual-Thomas, aka JET, came off the bench for the Gunners in a 2-1 loss to Shakhtar Donetsk in October 2010.
Aberdeen’s summer signing also travelled to top European opposition such as Barcelona with the Gunners, although he did not get game time.
He thought the chance to experience Euro action had passed him by having played for Livingston, Thailand’s PTT Rayong and English lower-league QPR and Bristol City since leaving Arsenal.
Signing for Aberdeen offered the lure of European football and JET aims to make the most of the opportunity by leading the bid for the group stages.
He said: “I had played in Europe before and maybe I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen again.
“To play in such a competition you need to be playing in the top three or four of every competition.
“I was never going to pass up the opportunity to play in Europe with Aberdeen.”
JET’s Champions League experience
In a group stage Champions League clash in Ukraine, Emmanuel-Thomas was introduced as a second half substitute for Theo Walcott.
In the weeks prior to that Champions League game, he had featured off the bench in a 2-0 Premier League defeat of Chelsea and 4-0 Carling Cup win at Newcastle.
He said: “I remember the Shakhtar game because that was my Champions League appearance and it was a big game.
“Shakhtar has a really distinctive stadium with loud fans.
“As a young player it was a great game to be involved in.”
As a teenager, Emmanuel-Thomas was one of Arsenal’s most promising stars and a bright future was predicted for the attacker.
He scored 13 goals in 13 games for the Arsenal U23s to fire the second string to the FA Youth League and Cup Double.
Emmanuel-Thomas made his Arsenal first team debut at the age of 19 in an FA Cup clash against Stoke.
He said: “I travelled to numerous Champions League games with Arsenal.
“I wasn’t involved in a couple of them because of registration issues.
“I had come back off loans and wasn’t registered for the European games at the time.
“I went to places like Barcelona, but I wasn’t named in the playing squad.
“I have a lot of experiences from a young age travelling around Europe with the Arsenal first-team.”
BK Hacken on four-game winning streak
Aberdeen will face BK Hacken in front of a 5,665 strong crowd at Pittodrie in their first competitive game of the new season.
Manager Stephen Glass’ side have played just two pre-season friendlies during the summer, drawing with St Johnstone (0-0) and Inverness Caley Thistle (1-1).
Both friendlies were closed-door at the club’s Cormack Park training facility with Emmanuel-Thomas netting his first goal in a Reds shirt against Inverness.
In contrast, BK Hacken are 12 games into their domestic league campaign and registered a fourth straight Allsvenskan win when edging out IFK Norrkoping 1-0 away at the weekend.
Aberdeen are competing in Europe for an eighth successive season.
In the previous seven campaigns, the Reds played in the Europa League but failed to progress beyond the third qualifying round.
The Reds are now competing in Uefa’s newly-formed Conference League, the third tier of European club competition.
Should Aberdeen see off the Swedish outfit, their reward will be a tie against either Austria Wien (Austria) or Iceland’s Breidablik in the third qualifying round.
🔴 We will face Austria Wien (AUT) or Breidablik (ISL) if we progress to the third qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League.
📅 The tie will be played on 5th and 12th August. pic.twitter.com/ZLAoxV3YSP
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) July 19, 2021
Beyond the third qualifying round there is only the play-offs to negotiate to secure group stage qualification.
Emmanuel-Thomas, who signed a two-year deal with Aberdeen, said: “Playing in the European group stages is everybody’s main target.
“We know we have to win a few games to get there, but it is nothing that can’t be done.”
Early European momentum the target
Aberdeen will face BK Hacken home and away (in Gothenburg on Thursday July 29) before beginning the domestic campaign with a Premiership opener against Dundee United at Pittodrie on Sunday August 1.
Emmanuel-Thomas hopes to go into that domestic opener with winning momentum and a tie against Austria Wien or Breidablik secured.
He said: “After we play those two games in Europe we have three days before the first match in the Premiership.
“We will be able to build up good momentum going into that first Premiership game.
“Hopefully with that first line of games we have coming up in the league we can be quite successful in picking up results.”
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