Aberdeen F.C. in Europe

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Contents 1 Early Lessons 2 History In The Making 3 Aberdeen's History in Europe 4 Footnotes

[edit] Early Lessons

Aberdeen played their first official match in competitive European football in early September, 1967. This was a European Cup Winners' Cup first round game against KR Reykjavik of Iceland. The match ended in a 10-0 thrashing home victory for Aberdeen in front of packed Pittodrie. This 10-0 debut result for Aberdeen on the European stage had bettered Dundee's 8-1 Scottish record drubbing of Cologne a few seasons previous.

However things could have been so much different for the Dons had they been granted their rightful place in the inaugral European Cup in 1955 as the Scottish League Champions. However Hibernian were elected for the championship instead.

Aberdeen were regular competitors in Europe during the late 1960's and all throughout the 1970's, however the team very rarely reached the latter stages of a European event. In fact it took Aberdeen 14 years of European football to reach the Third Round of a major event, this being against SV Hamburg in the UEFA Cup of season 1981-82.

Aberdeen had the distinction of being the very first team to be knocked out of a European competition on the football lottery of penalty kicks during the first round of the European Cup Winners' Cup of 1970-71, when after a thrilling 4-4 two legged aggregate scoreline against Hungarian outfit Honvéd, the match had gone all the way to penalties, the very first time this had happened in European football. Aberdeen were the losers on the night by 5 kicks to 4 in Budapest.

When Aberdeen played in Europe, chances were it was going to be against a big team from the continent, and very rarely did this not happen. during the following years in Aberdeens European runs they faced the might of teams such as Juventus, the mighty Borussia Mönchengladbach and the then dominant Liverpool. On each of these occasions the Dons came out on fairly convincing defeats, but this was all a learning curb for tiny Aberdeen, and the crowning moment was soon to come when the Dons had put all the lessons taught by the giants of the European stage, into good use.

It wasn't until season 1980-81 that Aberdeen finally made their breakthrough onto the biggest stage of them all, the European Cup. Aberdeen had dominated their league the season previous with the appointment of Sir Alex Ferguson as their manager and a rejuvenated young squad full of talent and flair, and most importantly a passion to win and produce big upsets on the day.

That was exactly what had happened when Aberdeen were drawn against a very young and very experienced Austria Memphis in the opening round of the European Cup campaign. Aberdeen had ground out a result at home winning by the narrowest of margins, and were full of confidence heading to Austria for the return leg. Aberdeen didn't disappoint the legions of Red Army supporters who had made their journey to follow their beloved team. Aberdeen were on the backfoot for most of the return leg, rarely advancing into the opponents half throughout the 90 minutes, but this team were built on a solid back line of Willie Miller and a young Alex McLeish with the final result on the day, a 0-0 shut-out. Aberdeen had done the near impossible by knocking Austria Memphis off their perch as a leading force in Europe in those days and advanced to round 2 where the draw had yet again sprung on the Dons a giant, the daunting task of Liverpool. The run would end in the next round when the dons were out played and eventually losing the two legged affair by 5 goals to 0. Aberdeen took this as another big lesson to learn, but the most memorable of adventures was now only 2 seasons away...

Aberdeen had produced an upset the next year in the UEFA Cup of 1981-82 by knocking out defending champions Ipswich Town in the opening round before going on to lose in the third round to future European Champions SV Hamburg.

The lessons had now been learnt and the time to shine was now upon the Dons, the season was 1982-83, and Aberdeen had qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup a competition Aberdeen had never really done all that well in previously. But all that was soon about to change.

[edit] History In The Making

[edit] Aberdeen's History in Europe

Season	Competition	Round	Opposition	Score
1967-68	European Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	KR Reykjavik	10-0, 4-1
		Second Round	Standard Liège	0-3, 2-0
1968-69	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	First Round	Slavia Sofia	0-0, 2-0
		Second Round	Real Zaragoza	2-1, 0-3
1970-71	European Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Honvéd	3-1, 1-3 ¹
1971-72	UEFA Cup	First Round	Celta Vigo	2-0, 1-0
		Second Round	Juventus	0-2, 1-1
1972-73	UEFA Cup	First Round	Borussia Mönchengladbach	2-3, 3-6
1973-74	UEFA Cup	First Round	Finn Harps	4-1, 3-1
		Second Round	Tottenham Hotspur	1-1, 1-4
1977-78	UEFA Cup	First Round	R.W.D. Molenbeek	0-0, 1-2
1978-79	European Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	PFC Marek Dimitrov	2-3, 3-0
		Second Round	Fortuna Dusseldorf	0-3, 2-0
1979-80	UEFA Cup	First Round	Eintracht Frankfurt	1-1, 0-1
1980-81	European Cup	First Round	Austria Memphis	1-0, 0-0
		Second Round	Liverpool	0-1, 0-4
1981-82	UEFA Cup	First Round	Ipswich Town	1-1, 3-1
		Second Round	FC Argeş Piteşti	3-0, 2-2
		Third Round	SV Hamburg	3-2, 1-3
1982-83	European Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifier	Sion	7-0, 4-1
		First Round	Dinamo Tirana	1-0, 0-0
		Second Round	Lech Poznań	2-0, 1-0
		Quarter-Final	Bayern Munich	0-0, 3-2
		Semi-Final	Waterschei	5-1, 0-1
		Final	Real Madrid	2-1
1993-84	European Cup Winners Cup	First Round	IA Akranes	2-1, 1-1
		Second Round	Beveren	0-0, 4-1
1983	European Super Cup	Final	SV Hamburg	0-0, 2-0
1983-84	European Cup Winners' Cup	Quarter-Final	Újpest Dosza	0-2, 3-0
		Semi-Final	F.C. Porto	0-1, 0-1
1984-85	European Cup	First Round	Dynamo Berlin	2-1, 1-2
1985-86	European Cup	First Round	IA Akranes	3-1, 4-1
		Second Round	Servette	0-0, 1-0
		Quarter Final	IFK Gothenburg	2-2, 0-0
1986-87	European Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Sion	2-1, 0-3
1987-88	UEFA Cup	First Round	Bohemians	0-0, 1-0
		Second Round	Feyenoord	2-1, 0-1
1988-89	UEFA Cup	First Round	Dynamo Dresden	0-0, 0-2
1989-90	UEFA Cup	First Round	Rapid Vienna	2-1, 0-1
1990-91	UEFA Cup	First Round	Nea Salamina	2-0, 3-0
		Second Round	Legia Warsaw	0-0, 0-1
1991-92	UEFA Cup	First Round	BK 1903	0-1, 0-2
1991-92	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Valur	3-0, 4-0
		Second Round	Torino	2-3, 1-2
1994-95	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	Skonto Riga	0-0, 1-1
1996-97	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	Žalgiris Vilnius	4-1, 1-3
		First Round	Barry Town FC	3-1, 3-3
		Second Round	Brondby	0-2, 0-0
2000-01	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	Bohemians	1-2, 1-0
2003-03	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	Nistru Otaci	1-0, 0-0
		First Round	Hertha Berlin	0-0, 0-1
2007-08	UEFA Cup	First Round	FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	0-0, 1-1
		Group B	Panathinaikos	0-3
		Group B	Lokomotiv Moscow	1-1
		Group B	Atlético Madrid	0-2
		Group B	FC Copenhagen	4-0
		Third Round	Bayern Munich	2-2, 1-5

[edit] Footnotes

• ¹ - After a 4-4 draw with Hungarian side Honvéd, over two legs, Aberdeen became the first European club in history to be knocked out on penalty kicks. ^[1]