Time will tell how crucial Jonny Hayes’ late equaliser for Aberdeen will be.
It looked set to be a frustrating night for the Dons in last night’s Europa League encounter with Maribor with the Dons dominating for large parts before falling behind after 83 minutes when Milivoje Novakovic fired home.
But Hayes responded four minutes later to ensure the tie remains finely balanced ahead of next week’s return leg in Slovenia.
It will be a difficult task for the Dons to progress – but they showed last night in front of a crowd of 17,105 they were more than capable of matching Maribor.
The Dons progressed to the third qualifying round with reasonably straightforward victories against Fola Esch and Ventspils but a Maribor side packed with Slovenian internationals and spearheaded by Brazilian captain Marcos Tavares was an entirely different proposition.
The third qualifying round has proved to be the glass ceiling for Derek McInnes’ side in recent seasons following defeats to Real Sociedad in 2014 and Kairat Almaty last year – but a sizeable crowd crammed into Pittodrie in the hope they could go one step further this time.
The Aberdeen manager named an attack-minded line-up with an extra forward, Jayden Stockley, drafted in at the expense of Kenny McLean in the only alteration from the team that started in Latvia last week.
Maribor have enjoyed plenty of success against Scottish teams in recent times having knocked Celtic, Rangers and Hibernian out of European competition since 2010.
However it was Aberdeen who made an encouraging start to proceedings as they looked to end that run of Scottish misery at the hands of Slovenia’s most successful side.
A Shay Logan free kick was nodded back across goal by Ash Taylor but Adam Rooney was unable to apply the finishing touch, while a Stockley effort soon after was desperately headed clear by Rodrigo Defendi.
Tavares made his first meaningful contribution soon after with a powerful shot that was blocked by Taylor before the Dons should have opened the scoring in the 12th minute.
Careless play by Dare Vrsic gifted Rooney a free shot at goal but his effort was too close to goalkeeper Jasmin Handanovic, who eventually gathered the ball in unconvincing fashion at the second attempt.
If Maribor were rattled by Aberdeen’s early positivity they didn’t show it – and passed up an even better chance within five minutes.
An excellent move culminated in Denis Sme cutting the ball back to Marwan Khaba who blasted over with the goal at his mercy. A dreadful miss and major let-off for the Dons.
The Dons still looked the more likely to strike first and almost did with Rooney inches away from connecting with Andrew Considine’s tantalising cross.
The home faithful were appealing for a penalty – more in hope than expectation – when Rooney tumbled in the area under pressure from Marko Suler but Norwegian referee Tore Hansen was unmoved.
The pressure almost paid off two minutes before the break when Stockley met a Niall McGinn corner but Handanovic pulled off a magnificent save to thwart the attacker.
Maribor made a change at the interval with Dino Hotic replaced by Damjan Bohar and immediately put the Dons on the back foot with the lively Dare Vrsic testing Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis with a low drive.
Another worrying moment for the Dons soon after when Jonny Hayes required treatment following a challenge from Vrsic before Stockley almost profited when Suler misjudged a Rooney cross.
Hayes, having shrugged off his injury, went close to grabbing the game’s opening goal with an arrowed strike from 20 yards that whizzed past the post with Handanovic beaten.
The floodlights in the South Stand went out in the 63rd minute but the game surged on at a fast and frenetic pace.
The Dons sensed a goal was coming and made a double substitution in a bid to force the issue with McLean and Wes Burns brought on for Stockley and Graeme Shinnie.
Aberdeen thought they had finally made the breakthrough with nine minutes to go when Rooney latched onto a clever McGinn pass and coolly slotted home, only for the strike to be ruled out for a marginal offside decision.
But it was Maribor who were to nab a crucial away goal with Novakovic charging down a Taylor clearance before ruthlessly firing beyond Lewis.
This was harsh on the Dons but they mustered an immediate reply with Rooney laying the ball into the path of Hayes to slide home and keep Aberdeen’s hopes of progression on track.
It was no more than they deserved.