Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes believes one-leg qualifying rounds for the Europa League will favour the underdog.
The Dons kick-off their seventh successive European campaign tonight against Faroese side NSi Runavik at Pittodrie but with the tie decided on the night in the Granite City due to a reduced qualifying format this season McInnes knows Runavik have arrived with nothing to lose.
He said: “A one-off game potentially allows the underdog to have a better shot at it, rather than over two games.
“On that reasoning, any team who aren’t favourites would probably have a better chance of going through.
“Likewise tomorrow night. That’s what I really want to concentrate on. We are aware of their threats and aware of the challenges we face if we don’t bring our own level of performance.”
The biggest threat to Aberdeen’s hopes of progressing to Monday’s second qualifying round draw is Faroe Islands international striker Klaemint Olsen, whose hat-trick helped his side beat Barry Town United in last week’s preliminary round tie.
McInnes is mindful of the threat of the attacker but has seen enough to know the minnows have threats in their side.
He said: “Any team that beats their opponent 5-1 deserves that respect.
“They’re a very good possession based team. They’ve got good experience and have a talisman striker in Olsen.
“They’ve got good players throughout so we’ve got to make sure we’re good at our own game and bring a level of performance. We’ve got to enjoy being in Europe and we’ve always worked hard to get onto the European stage.
“We’ve always enjoyed putting ourselves forward and hopefully we can do that again and get a result against Runavik.
“We expect a tough match. Their biggest advantage over us is that this is their 18th game of the season – their season started back in May – whereas this is our fourth game, staggered.
“We’ve faced that in the past but we’re still trying to find some rhythm and have some injuries. We’ll try to put out the team that gives us the best chance of winning the game.
“The benefit of them playing games is that we’ve got to see plenty of them in action. Over the last few games, we’ve seen them get a varying degree of results and performances against different teams. The Barry game was another on top of that so we feel we have a good handle of them.”
Funso Ojo misses out as he serves a suspension due to his red card against Rijeka last season while Craig Bryson has a calf injury. Andy Considine returns after serving a two-match ban while Scott McKenna is fit after recovering from illness.
Niall McGinn is also in contention after missing Sunday’s 2-1 win against Livingston.
McInnes said: “Niall has got a chance. He had a scan on Monday and thankfully it’s nothing sinister. It’s just the nature of the kick that he got. It’s just a little tender.
“We’re hoping he will have a chance, but he’s not ruled in or out at the minute.”
