ABERDEEN manager Derek McInnes believes his players should feel confident ahead of their Europa League encounter against a Maribor team who have proved a thorn in Scottish football’s side.
Maribor have knocked Celtic, Rangers and Hibernian out of Europe in the past six seasons. And, although they lost to Celtic’s latest opponents Astana in their only tie last season, they have a strong recent history in European competition.
The Slovenians reached the Champions League group stages the previous season — thanks to victory over Celtic — and emerged from a group featuring Wigan Athletic to reach the last 32 of the Europa League in 2013-14. The Dons have beaten Fola Esch of Luxembourg and Ventspils of Latvia to reach this stage but McInnes is equally comfortable being the underdogs.
“They are favourites,” he said ahead of tomorrow’s first leg at Pittodrie. “Regardless of who we get at this stage, we are going to be underdogs, and we are underdogs. But we were underdogs against Groningen and Rijeka. We are confident in our own abilities to get the right result.
“Scottish football has taken a wee bit of a kicking with some of the results but we want to represent ourselves first and foremost, get the reputation of our club at the forefront of people’s minds and in doing so help Scottish football. We are underdogs but can win the game. Our boys are confident. We have learned over the last few seasons to deal with European football.”
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