Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen Europa League latest: A rundown of Sporting CP, LASK and DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda

Aberdeen celebrate during their 6-0 win over Runavik.
Aberdeen celebrate during their 6-0 win over Runavik.

Aberdeen have been drawn against either LASK or Dunajska Streda if they get past Sporting CP in the Europa League third qualifying round.

If the Dons are to make the Europa League group stages for the first time, they will have to do it the hard way by defeating one of the strongest teams in the draw in Sporting.

Should they emerge victorious in Portugal on Thursday, it would be LASK, who made the round of 16 in 2019-20, or Slovakian outfit Dunajska Streda who would journey to Pittodrie in October 1.

Here is a brief lowdown on the teams in question.

Sporting CP

Sporting CP head coach Ruben Amorim

A team with 37 league and cup honours to its name, Sporting CP is one of the most recognisable names in European football, owing to its prodigious history of developing young talent.

Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Joao Moutinho were all given their chance by the Lisbon club, as well as national team players like Adrien Silva, William Carvalho and Joao Mario. They also sold prolific midfielder Bruno Fernandes to Manchester United earlier this year.

Their last league title came in 2002 and they finished in Liga NOS last season. They managed three pre-season games before a Covid-19 outbreak that has decimated the first-team squad.

A total of 10 players and staff – including manager Ruben Amorim – had already recorded positive results, before midfielder Joao Palhinha and another member of staff were announced as having the virus on Friday.

Their friendly against Napoli was postponed and their opening league game against Gil Vicente, which was due to take place this weekend, has also fallen by the wayside because of the outbreak.

Sporting’s men’s volleyball team have also returned five positive cases and the entire squad is in quarantine.

It remains to be seen what could happen before the tie with Aberdeen takes place, whether a weakened Sporting side plays the Dons or if a forfeit of the tie is required altogether if more positive cases emerge. Such a fate befell Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia and Kosovan side FC Prishtina in the earlier rounds after outbreaks within their squads.

 

LASK

LASK faced Manchester United in the round of 16 last season

The Linz-based side won their opening Austrian Bundesliga fixture 1-0 last Friday and came fourth in the division last season.

They are coached by former Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen and Lens defender Valerian Ismael and have recent strong pedigree in the Europa League.

LASK topped a group in 2019-20 including the Dons’ next opponents Sporting, PSV Eindhoven and Rosenborg, with their only defeat coming in a 2-1 loss in Lisbon.

Another Dutch side were overcome in the round of 32 in the shape of AZ Alkmaar, before Manchester United ended their impressive run with a 7-1 aggregate triumph.

That run came on the back of being one tie away from reaching the Champions League group stages, in which they were eliminated by Club Brugge at the play-off stage.

They also made the third qualifying round during the 2018-19 campaign, in which they were beaten by Besiktas.

 

DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda

Vakoun Issouf Bayo joined Celtic from Dunajska Streda

Dunajska have finished in the top three of the Slovak Super Liga for the last three seasons, finishing third in 2018 and 2020 and runner-up in 2019.

The club sold Ivorian striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo to Celtic prior to the start of the 2019-20 campaign and are managed by German Bernd Storck, who has formerly taken charge of Cercle Brugge, the Kazakhstan and Hungary national sides, as well as being an assistant at Dortmund and Wolfsburg.

They have won six out of six so far this season in their domestic league and have come past FH (Iceland) and Jablonec (Czech Republic) in one-off ties in the Europa League.

This is the furthest they have reached in the Europa League after debuting in the 2018-19 campaign. On both occasions they have been knocked out in the second qualifying round, by Dinamo Minsk two years ago and Atromitos in 2019.