Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes hopes to exploit the young defensive line of Viking FK in Norway when the two sides meet on Europa League duty on Thursday.
The Dons fly out to Stavanger on Wednesday for a tie with a trip to Lisbon to face Sporting Clube de Portugal awaiting the winners.
The chance to play Sporting is all the incentive either club needs in their second qualifying round match this week and having assessed the Norwegians McInnes is expecting to face an attack-minded side in the hosts.
He said: “We’ll get a good handle on them this week but there will be no surprises come kick-off and we’ll try to get the job done over there.
“They play 4-3-3, with a one and a two in midfield and they have good attacking players. They will be quite expansive with their approach and they like to play.
“They have a young backline but having looked at the reports and my recruitment team who have watched them in depth they are a team who make the game open and have a real attacking threat. It’s important we get the balance right between attacking and defending.
“It will be two decent teams against each other and the prize is clear.
“It is going to be a tough game on a plastic pitch against a capable side but it is why we look forward to Europe.
“We look forward to testing ourselves and the motivation for both teams is the opportunity to go to Portugal and take on Sporting Lisbon which is something really worth working for.
“They had a good result against Molde recently so their confidence will be high.”
The Dons travel to Norway in a rich vein of form having recorded their fifth win in a row in Saturday’s 1-0 victory against Kilmarnock at Pittodrie.
With four of the five victories having been claimed without the loss of a goal Aberdeen are in confident mood and McInnes is eager to see his side maintain their intensity and tempo in Stavanger.
He said: “When you select a team as we did do on Saturday, it is exciting when it is right and there was a lot of speed and width in the team.
“There is a trade off with that and you need to defend a bit more which we are happy to at times as long as we do the right thing.
“When the opponent is putting on attacking player after attacking player, there comes a time where you have to negate that, and I thought that we were pretty comfortable. We showed our experience and got the job done.
“The confidence in the team is good, but I am also looking for more. The exciting part for me is that I know there is better in us and we are working hard to get a better 90 minutes performance at times.”
