Aberdeen sneaks through to UEFA Cup group stages

By: Ian Rose | October 4th, 2007

While Rangers, and to some extent Celtic, rip through the Champions League, my attention has been much more focused on Scotland’s one remaining team in the UEFA Cup. It’s not just that I run the UEFA Cup blog here at the Offside. Even with all the recent victories for Scottish football, we are still, in many people’s eyes, a two-team league. There’s the Old Firm and then a bunch of others. The creation of an “upper middle class” in Scottish football, a strong second tier that can compete on the wider European stage, is essential to the growth and development of the Scottish game. We need not only the Old Firm to win, but our smaller teams to get some measure of victory as well, and today, one of the most storied sides in Scottish football did just that, if only by a very small margin.

Aberdeen advanced today past Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk of Ukraine on away goals. The first leg in Aberdeen was a hard-fought scoreless draw, and Aberdeen had the advantage going into this match, with Dnipro failing to score the precious away goal. The Dons were able to get that goal in the Ukraine today, courtesy of a skilled header from Darren Mackie. A 1-1 draw was enough for Aberdeen to go, admittedly not bullishly, into the group stages.

Well done to the Dons. Considering the round, this was a very hard draw, and as Celtic well know, it’s never fun to go to Ukraine in need of points, but Aberdeen did what they needed to do, and now have at least a few more matches in their European season, and a chance to add to their UEFA coefficient, and that of Scotland as a whole. With this draw, they move above Hibernian to become the fourth-ranked Scottish side in the UEFA team rankings, behind Rangers, Celtic, and Hearts. Keep it up, Reds.