Aberdeen midfielder Lewis Ferguson hopes his second game against Norwegian opposition tomorrow is less eventful than his last one.
Ferguson and his team-mates head to Stavanger today to prepare for tomorrow’s Europa League second qualifying round tie against Viking FK and he is eager to avoid a repeat of his last Norwegian encounter.
The Dons player was a member of the Scotland squad which faced Norway in the under-19 European Championship in March 2018 and it then that Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Braut Haaland ripped victory from Scotland’s grasp.
The striker scored twice before the break to give his side 2-0 lead before Scotland hit back with four goals to lead 4-2 with eight minutes remaining.
However, three goals from the Norwegians, including an injury time winner from Haaland to complete his hat-trick left the Scots reeling in a nine-goal thriller.
Ferguson said: “We had 15 minutes to go and going through then the big man turned up.
“He was just a different animal that day. That is the only experience I have had and it wasn’t a great one.
“I would like to have a better experience. It was the first time I had encountered Haaland.
“We had watched videos of him and I can remember this clear as anything. They were playing Holland before us and he missed a sitter.
“It was a bad miss. I know he is a top player but it was a bad miss. We all had a wee chuckle to ourselves hoping he played like that against us.
“But he was a different animal with his finishing and pace. You could tell he was going to go onto something great and he has done that.”
Haaland’s rise to prominence as one of the hottest prospects in world football has been no surprise to Ferguson who expects the striker to scale even greater heights in the years ahead.
He said: “He has been top class. He has everything to be a top striker and we saw that a few years ago when we played against him.
“Now the rest of the world has seen that at the top level. I am pretty sure he will go on to even bigger and better things.”