Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes believes his Reds were handed the toughest possible tie in the Europa League’s first qualifying round.
The Dons were drawn against Macedonian side KF Shkendija, with the first leg to be played on July 2 and the second leg at Pittodrie a week later.
Welsh side Bala Town, Northern Ireland’s Glenavon, Finland’s SJK Seinajoki and Vikingur from the Faroe Islands were the other teams the Dons could have been paired with in yesterday’s draw in Nyon.
McInnes, whose side will face Croatia’s HNK Rijeka in the second round qualifier should they overcome the Macedonians, reckons Shkendija were the toughest of the five teams.
He said: “We know they finished third in their league and they finished their season really strongly. They only had one defeat in their last seven games which got them into third.
“They have qualified for Europe quite regularly over the past few seasons.
“It is going to be quite hot there, we’re expecting the temperature to be around 30 degrees and that’s another challenge.
“They finished their campaign on May 24, similar to ourselves. But they came back earlier than us and have already had a couple of pre-season games.
“The good thing is we have access to all their games from last season, so we can watch the back end of their season.
“We’ll get to work on that over the next couple of days and try and familiarise ourselves with them.
“But the reaction when we saw the draw was probably the same as theirs, they won’t know too much about us and we don’t know too much about them.
“Over the next 48 hours I would like to think we’ll be able to find out pretty much everything about them.
“We have work to do to get to know them but we’ll look forward to the game.
“They are ranked 363rd in Europe – we’re 285th, I think.
“Out of all the ties in the early rounds it’s probably the toughest we could have got. But it’s still one we want to go in to with a bit of confidence on the back end of last season.
“It’s one we have to make sure we’re ready for, and we will be.”
Aberdeen supporters wanting to watch the Dons in Europe will likely require three flights to make the 4,254-mile journey.
McInnes still expects a decent number of Red Army members to make the mammoth trip.
He added: “There are other places and teams we could have got which would have been more accessible for them and made things more simple in terms of travel.
“But knowing our support they’ll still turn up in good numbers.
“That’s part of the European experience, you just never know what you are going to get, different styles, different cultures, different temperatures, it’s all part of it.
“I’m sure we’ll take a good support with us and hopefully we can get through the tie and have another one to look forward to.”