"80% through" he said, "the tie is now a formality" they thought, "We will win in Groningen". Yet they did not account for the true Pride in the North coming good. Kostic was made to eat his own words and so were the majority of the Groningen players as Aberdeen left the Netherlands with a 2-1 aggregate victory, seeing us now move on to face Spanish side, Real Sociedad.
A Rooney penalty and McGinn tap in, were all the Dons needed to guide themselves into the Europa League's third qualifying round. Aberdeen played magnificently and did tremendously well to stem the Groningen attacks before they got into threatening areas.
Rooney showed excellent mettle and composure to calmly slot home from the spot in the 26th minute to fire the Dons into the lead before McGinn was first to react after Rooney's shot hit the bar and he tapped home to double Aberdeen's advantage and create a monstrous challenge for their Dutch opponents. As the first half drew to a close, Groningen were thrown a lifeline as Kieftenbeld headed in at the near post. Langfield will have felt he could have don better.
The Aberdeen keeper did redeem himself in the second half though, with a string of brilliant saves during Groningen's strongest spell to keep his side in front and ultimately progress from the tie. The second period was much a case of defending and defending strongly. Aberdeen did that managing to keep their heads and book a date to go toe to toe with Real Sociedad.
Thursday nights victory was the first time the Dons had ever beaten a Dutch side on their own patch and is probably one of the best results in the clubs history. This Aberdeen team are definitely going places this season!
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