European football returns to Pittodrie after a five year absence tonight as Aberdeen face Latvian club Daugava Riga in the first qualifying round of the Europa League.
The game will mark Derek McInnes’ European debut as a manager and with the Dons supporters eagerly anticipating the club’s return to Europe McInnes is eager to make tonight a memorable occasion.
He said: “The game has been eagerly anticipated. A lot of people have commented on the fact that we’re back early and that it might be seen as a negative going into the first game proper a bit earlier than maybe we have been in the past. But for us it’s something we are all looking forward to.
“As a city and as club we’ve been without European football the last wee while and I think we’ve all got to be excited by that. From the players point of view sometimes after three or four friendly games you’re looking for that first game proper and that’s where we are at the minute.
“We feel well versed on them. We’re familiar with the shape they like to play, it’s a shape which not too many teams in Scotland have played in over the years but it’s a shape they look comfortable in. We’ve done our work on them and we feel we are quite familiar with their players.
“Our players will know what they need to know. As much as you need to prepare and look at your opponents and study them, I think it will be our own performance that decides whether we get through or not. We have got to concentrate and hopefully bring a performance we are capable of. I think if we do that then we’ll cause this team problems.”