Derek McInnes must have wondered if he laughs or cries when he sees who was expecting him if his Aberdeen team reached the 3rd Europa League qualifier.
Sporting Club de Portugal, named Sporting Lisbon by many, will face the winner of the Dons’ holiday in Stavanger to face Viking FK in two weeks.
It’s a glamorous tie, of course, but full of dangers. Make no mistake, if Aberdeen succeeds in the play-offs this season, it will be a smooth achievement for McInnes in his seven Europa League campaigns.
The good news for the Dons, if they beat Viking, a complicated game in itself, is that the José Alvalada XXI Stadium with a capacity of 50080 seats will be empty, any chance that the game will be played in an intimidating environment, however, it remains an overwhelming task.
With 18 Portuguese League titles, 17 national cups and a European Cup Winners’ Cup among their achievements, this is no surprise.
After all, this is a club that has the difference of having produced two winners of the FIFA World Player of the Year, Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo.
But the stars of the years that follow are one thing, it is the elegance of 2020 that will occupy the minds of Dons fans.
Athletes are favourites for their consistency in Europe and have a pedigree after reaching the 16th Europa League final last season.
Obviously, after beating Rosenborg at home and away and PSV Eindhoven 4-0 at the organization level last season, they are cups, but they will be disappointed to have left a 3-1 home advantage after wasting 4-1 on Istanbul.in the last 32.
All Aberdeen enthusiasts cross hands to keep the Spurs interested in the foreign end of Cape Verde’s Sporting Jovane Cabral.
The 22-year-old missed the first part of the season due to injury, but returned gladly to score six goals and provide 3 assists in his 10 openings in the last 16 league games.
A crumb of convenience for the Dons is the fact that Sporting have been a losing club for the past 12 months. Former Portuguese foreign midfielder Rubén Amorim is the club’s current coach. The 35-year-old appointed in March, replacing Silas, and when he took the job, he became the club’s fourth manager last season.
One would expect Amorim to be in the canoe while Dons or Viking arrived in Portugal, but there is nothing certain about what has been an unpredictable time for the hosts.
One thing is certain, however, for now, Amorim has had the opportunity to make adjustments and has part of a dozen new faces on his team.
Goalkeeper Antonio Adan has joined Atletico Madrid, while 3 new defenders are also on the books.
This is central defender Zouhair Feddal, who joined Real Betis, former left-back Getafe Vitorino Antunes and right-back Pedro Porro, who arrived at the two-year-old club on loan from Manchester City, who paid 11 million pounds for his to Girona in 2017.
Another guy who enjoys English football is midfielder Pedro Goncalves, who spent a season at the Wolves.
He arrived from Famalicao with Nuno Santos, left-back, completing the lineup after his 3.5 million pounds from Rio Ave.
Obviously, there’s been a lot of changes. Aberdeen’s attention is rightly in Stavanger, but they hope, if they win Portugal, to catch a team not only betting their competitive moment of the season, but also in transition.
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