A great start to the European campaign for Aberdeen with a convincing 5-0 win over Latvian side Daugava Riga, who in all honesty did not look a professional football team by any stretch of the imagination. Even Hibs could have beat them. Luckily for the Latvian's we had not played a proper match before the game, and if we had it could have been an extremely embarrassing scoreline. A brilliant 15,000 fans witnessed the demolition job of Daugava Riga, on a beautiful sunny night in the Granite City and it looks as if there will be more European nights to come as it is extremely unlikely that Riga will overturn Aberdeen's five goal advantage when the teams meet again next Thursday in Riga.
Pittodrie Stadium looked marvelous as the fans basked in the evening sunshine watching their team emerge from the tunnel in a European game for the first time in five years. The game started as it would carry on to be for the remaining 90 minutes. Aberdeen on the front foot, with Dauagava desperately trying to clear the ball. An early shot from Robson was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Zubas and gave the Dons fans a taste of what was to come.
A long period of relentless Aberdeen pressure followed as the Dons poked and prodded to see if they could find a way through the Daugava defence. They managed to do so on several occasions but the final ball or composure was not quite up to scratch. That can be excused considering it was their first competitive match of the season. Rooney was inches away from scoring on two occasions but the deliveries from Jack and Pawlett were just out of his reach, making it difficult for the striker to turn the ball home.
A goal was definitely coming from the home side and that looked very likely as the referee, who was from France, pointed to the spot after Rooney was blatantly barged in the back by Borovski, who was then booked. Robson stepped up with his long run up as ever, to take the spot kick. The penalty was not great and the 23 year-old keeper made a comfortable save diving to his left hand side. Luckily the penalty miss would not prove costly. It became apparent the Latvian side were not ones for keeping cool heads as they had three players booked in four minutes. One for a scything challenge on Logan that could have been very dangerous.
The game edged into a dull period as the Dons looked staggered after mising the penalty, however slowly but surely the dominance in possession and cutting edge was restored this time with a reward. Hayes who found himself out left on 33 minutes, swung in a terrific ball to the back post finding the unmarked Shay Logan, who calmly headed into the corner to give Aberdeen the advantage. Aberdeen exerted more pressure onto their opponents defence but they withstood sending the teams in at halftime with Aberdeen one goal to the good.
Aberdeen came out in the second half and looked to have a bit more bite about them and match sharpness. It did not take long before the home crowd were on their feet following half time as McGinn smashed home from close range to double Aberdeen's advantage after the keeper had made a good save. The misery then continued for Daugava Riga as two quickly became three for what I think was a handball inside the area. Rooney stepped up to take, and as expected Cooley slotted home to the bottom right hand corner.
The match was now becoming a rout, with the Latvian's barely being able to string two passes together and the home support realised that Aberdeen were well on top and were not going to throw away such a vast goal difference. Zils was then sent off for a second bookable offence which seemed inevitable as they were now flying into challenges. Aberdeen did not let up though and continued to pile the pressure onto the visitors and several more chances were passed up before Hayes managed to stab the ball into the back of the net at the back post to make it four.
The game was now rolling well away from the Latvian side and McInnes made several changes as the circumstances allowed him to do so. One of those was bringing on youngster Scott Wright in place of Barry Robson and when he came on he looked like he would create a chance every time he was in possession of the ball. Certainly an exciting prospect for Aberdeen in the years to come. As the game moved into its final stages Daugava Riga were reduced to nine men following Kucŷs receiving a second yellow card for a late challenge. He joined his mate in the changing room for an early shower.
The game was to end on a high note though as Hayes in the 90th minute delivered to Rooney in the box who produced a magnificent flick which caught out the goalkeeper and making it five goals to none in favour of Aberdeen. An easy nights work for the Dons in all honesty but one that they had to come through. Now onto next Thursday where Aberdeen travel to Latvia where they will try and hopefully out the tie to bed once and for all.
FT: Aberdeen 5-0 Duagava Riga
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