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RedMatchday Preview

01 July 2014

In RedMatchday 01 there is an exclusive in-depth interview with skipper Russell Anderson who looks ahead to the new campaign and gives us his thoughts on leading the side out in Europe for the first time

“My first game was against the Moldovan side Nistru Otaci in 2002. We played the first leg at home but I can't remember much about the game, apart from Darren scoring a late goal – we won 1-0. We then went over there and drew 0-0. I think we were pretty comfortable but we had to play well over there, the whole team played well that night.

“Then it was the same for the next game against Hertha Berlin with the first leg being at home. We had a really good crowd that night despite the fact the game kicked off early for the purposes of German TV. They were a decent team. We drew 0-0 at Pittodrie, we had a couple of half chances, but could not get a goal to take with us to Germany. I remember the away leg a lot better. I remember they went down to ten men and at that stage we thought we had a really good chance of going through but then Eric Deloumeaux got sent off in the second half which levelled things up.

“The one thing I remember most about the experience was the fine lines between winning and losing at that level. In the closing stages I had a header that was cleared off the line with about two minutes to go and then they went down the pitch and scored. There was then no time for us to come back. It was really disappointing. It was still a really good experience but so disappointing in the way we ended up going out of the competition because we were as good as them over the two legs.

“I remember their stadium was being renovated for the World Cup and half of it was a building site. You could still envisage how the stadium was going to pan out and I have obviously seen it since, they made a remarkable job of it, but at the time it was a strange kind of atmosphere and environment to play in.”
 


Also in this Euro special RedMatchday there are the thoughts of Derek McInnes ahead of the game:

“Everyone at Pittodrie is determined to ensure that this is the start of a period when Aberdeen will be challenging for trophies and for European qualification on a regular basis. We can only do that if we look to continually improve every aspect of the football club.”

There are columns from Chris Crighton and Richard Gordon, plus there is a chance to win one of five signed copies of Richard's new book Scotland '74.

There are interviews with the Dons news boys Ashton Taylor, Scott Brown and Shay Logan.

We give you everything you need to know about FK Daugava Riga. We also look back on the Dons last Latvian Expedition which ended in disaster some 20 years ago. The media have taken great delighted over the past week in reminding us about the Skonto Riga 'embarrassment'. However when researching the game properly evidence suggests Skonto were actually a much stronger team than many realised at the time. Or is still one of the Dons worse results? You decide.

Plus there are lots of special one off features as well as an extensive AFC History section with a European stats section. 

RedMatchday magazine we be on sale in and around the ground on Thursday and is also available from the Pittodrie Club shop, still priced at £3.

If you cannot get to the game you can buy a copy online by clicking here

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