Aberdeen club captain Joe Lewis believes Breidablik’s feat of eliminating Austria Vienna shows the Dons cannot take their next Conference League opponents lightly.
A trip to Iceland next week beckons for the Dons following Breidablik’s 3-2 aggregate victory against the Austrians, and goalkeeper Lewis insists they will be shown every respect following their win.
He said: “If you look at the two teams, we are maybe more familiar with Austria Vienna than Breidablik.
“If you are looking at things from a historical viewpoint, then you might have thought they were getting through, but it looks like the Icelandic team were the better team over the two legs.
“There is no danger we will be taking them lightly. They have deserved to get through and we will be fully focused on them after Sunday.”
Lewis formed a friendship with former Dons team-mate Kari Arnason during the duo’s time together at Pittodrie, but will resist the temptation to contact his old clubmate, who currently plays for Vikingur in Iceland, for the lowdown on Aberdeen’s next opponents.
He said: “I haven’t been in touch with him since he left. He was a good pal of mine when he was here, but we have lost touch since he left Pittodrie.
“I will leave it up to the coaching staff to give me an insight into Breidablik.
“Gordon Marshall will give me plenty of information on their attacking threats and we will be ready for Thursday.
“I haven’t played in Iceland before, but we will be well prepared.”
Breidablik, like BK Hacken, are midway through their season and are currently fourth in the Icelandic top flight.
But, having played two competitive games, Lewis says there can be no excuses for his side not being ready for the task.
He said: “We have two 90 minutes under our belts. We can have no excuses.
“Hacken were up running in their season and we managed to get past them with relative comfort in the end.
“There will be no excuses that we will be ready.”
‘A few subs came on and shored up things and we managed to see out the game in relative comfort’
Aberdeen booked their place in the next round after a 2-0 defeat in Gothenburg on Thursday, but Lewis believes over the two legs his team deserved to advance.
He said: “We have experienced situations like that before. When teams are playing with nothing to lose they can throw men forward.
“One goal for us at any stage of the game would have killed them. They got their tails up a bit and when the second goal went in we knew we couldn’t give them any more encouragement.
“A few subs came on and shored up things and we managed to see out the game in relative comfort.”
Lewis added: “It was a good test. It highlighted how well we played in the first-leg, to win 5-1 against a team of that quality.
“They were always going to have a real go. We created some more chances, but we weren’t quite as clinical as we were in the first game.
“It kept their hopes alive and then they got their goal and we managed to weather the storm and see the game out and to get through.
“It is the pleasing thing, because we knew it was a difficult tie when it was drawn. To get through 5-3, looking at the whole picture, is a good result.”
Focus switches to Premiership opener
Breidablik is the next European challenge, but Iceland can wait for now, however, as the Dons turn their attention to getting their Premiership campaign off to a winning start when Dundee United visit Pittodrie on Sunday.
United beat the Dons 3-0 in their last visit to the Granite City, in the Scottish Cup, but with 6,300 supporters set to attend the game Lewis is eager to build on the 5-1 win in the first home game of the season against Hacken a week ago.
He said: “It is good to have even more fans in. There was a great atmosphere against BK Hacken at home and now there will be even more fans in.
“It is good to get the fans in and hopefully we can put on a performance against Dundee United like we did at home in Europe to get the fans going again.
“We obviously want to go as far as we can in Europe and also do well domestically as well.
“Dundee United are a good side. They showed that in the cup last season, but we have to look to ourselves and we need to try and replicate the levels we showed at Pittodrie against BK Hacken.
“If we can do that then we will give ourselves a real good chance of getting another positive result.”