Jimmy Thelin praised the power of Pittodrie as the crucial ingredient in helping us side recover from 2-0 down to go to Bucharest next week on level terms with FCSB.

“I think the 12th player, our fans, today was the difference that gave us a chance in the away game to go through to the Europa League. It’s so difficult when you’re two down. In that way, I’m really proud of the players and our supporters today because creating that atmosphere was the difference that gave us a chance to go through.

“These goals we conceded today is more about ourselves. They used the situations with top quality, they didn’t miss, but we can’t give them these chances, whatever the game. I think we learned a lot about ourselves, and now we have one week to prepare this to do a much better, more stable performance.”

Thelin was bold in his substitutions making all five inside an hour, and he was pleased with their contributions.

“I’m pleased by the players who came on, how they perform, how they contribute, the passion they show, because it’s a difficult task to come on, especially when you start the second half, after 50 seconds giving that goal away. But to still have this capacity to never stop believing, that’s a really strong thing to have together with the fans.

“All the players that came on brought a lot of good things. Ester with his work capacity and also getting this goal was so, so important for him. But Dante has shown now for some weeks and some performances inside the games that his form is coming back strong. He did really well and we have to stretch this capacity in more and more minutes. But it shows now in all the games that play that he’s much quicker with the feet, his intensity, his decision making. He can do something extra, something on his own. He can create and the way he scored the goal today was totally top level.

“I think it’s going to be a totally different game next week, but I’m optimistic because we gave ourselves a chance and that’s the most important thing, to give us the chance to move forward now and we’re going to give everything to try to do the job.”