42

Pittodrie

Thursday 21^st August 2025

The past year has been one of extremes for Aberdeen with very little time having been spent anywhere in between elation and despair. Jimmy Thelin was appointed as Aberdeen’s manager in June 2024 and wasted little time in making his mark on the club. Aberdeen started the 2024/25 season with ten wins and a draw from their first 11 games. A run which saw them sat atop the Scottish Premiership and had some of the more excitable corners of the fanbase talking of a realistic challenge to Celtic for the title. Everything that was good about the start to the season was flipped on it’s head for the end of the season though. After those first 11 games Aberdeen only managed five wins from their remaining 27 league games.

The big bright spot in the second half of the season though was the Scottish Cup run. Comfortable wins against Elgin City and Dunfermline Athletic in the 4th and 5th rounds should have set up a quarter-final against Rangers. Aberdeen’s task became significantly easier however when Rangers were surprisingly beaten by Queen’s Park. Another easy win saw them through to the semi-final. Extra time was needed to see off Hearts with a 118th minute goal taking them to a final with Celtic. At Hampden own goals from both teams meant extra time was again needed. This time there were no late heroics and so a penalty shoot out would decide whether the cup would be staying in Glasgow or travelling north to Aberdeen. Four of the best penalties I can remember seeing from any team were enough for Aberdeen to seal victory after Celtic had seen two efforts saved by newly crowned Aberdeen hero Dimitar Mitov.

The Scottish Cup victory secured a place in the Europa League play-off round at the expense of Hibs, who had finished third in the Premiership and would have been awarded this spot if Celtic had won the cup after already securing the league title. As well as being able to revel in their rivals misfortune the other advantage of this was that European group-stage football was assured regardless of the result in the play-off. A win would take Aberdeen into the Europa League proper whilst a loss would see them enter the Europa Conference League group stages.

For the Playoff round Aberdeen had been drawn against FCSB (or the artists formerly known as Steaua Bucharest). Whilst this is a name that immediately brings to mind the classic age of the European Cup, with two appearances in the final in the 80s and a win in 1986 against Barcelona, the club are in a very different place these days. They lost to Macedonian team KF Shkendija in their Champions League qualifier and laboured past Kosovan champions Drita in the previous qualifying round of the Europa League. As a result they were probably the best possible draw for Aberdeen when compared to the alternatives of FC Midtjylland, Lech Poznan, and Panathinaikos.

It was a warm and sunny evening for the game and I decided to make the most of it and walk to the ground. I’ve never lived close enough to a team to be able to walk to a game and it was an enjoyable way to arrive with the streets getting steadily busier as I got closer to Pittodrie. Fans were queuing to get into the gates on Merkland Lane before they had even opened which gave an indication of how much the game meant to Aberdeen.

Getting in to the ground was easy despite the large crowd with plenty of people around to direct fans to the right gate. As my ticket was for the upper part of the Richard Donald stand I was faced with a lot of steps to climb but the stairway was decorated with murals on every wall which were a nice distraction and gave what could be a very boring area quite a lot of character. It’s a long time since I’ve been to a big stadium in the UK and in lots of ways nothing seems to have changed. The one thing that did jump out to me though was the pervasiveness of gambling as there were even adverts for a betting company on the urinals in the men’s toilets. Clearly there is no level they won’t stoop to.

The view from where I was sat was excellent other than the bar at the top of the safety barrier at the front of the stand. That blocked a small strip across the full width of the pitch but it was just outside the penalty area in front of me so I didn’t expect it to cause too many problems. All the fans had been provided with flags at their seats so that a display could be shown as the teams came out before the game. This was accompanied by what was discribed as a pyrotechnic display but which from where I was sat felt a lot closer to Alan Partridge’s request for a condensed Pink Floyd concert for £500 (puff, flash, puff, flash, bang).

The game got underway and the pattern of play was established almost immediately. FCSB were clearly content to let Aberdeen have as much of the ball as they wanted and to try and hit them on the break on the few occasions that they managed to get, and hold, possession. Aberdeen managed an early half chance when much maligned striker Kusini Yengi only needed to find the slightest of touches and the ball would almost certainly have hit the back of the net but the cross evaded him and FCSB breathed a sigh of relief.

The game also started to get away from the referee early on. He was blowing his whistle for every bit of contact between players and the game felt very stop-start. The situation wasn’t helped by the FCSB players going to ground and feigning injury at every opportunity. This was perfectly demonstrated on 21′ when Florin Tanase went down under a fairly innocuous challenge but writhed around holding his ankle and waving his arm. FCSB played on until the sting went out of their attack at which point they kicked the ball out in their own half and Nicolas Milanovic was then booked for trying to take the resulting throw-in.

FCSB had their first real chance on 32′ when the breakaway that they had been looking for from the start fell to them, they kicked long down the right and won the header. Aberdeen’s defence couldn’t get themselves organised fast enough and Daniel Birligea strode into the left hand side of the box and placed an accurate shot into the far corner of Dimitar Mitov’s goal. Somehow despite having almost no possession FCSB had the lead.

Just a few minutes later it was Aberdeen’s turn to break forward after another FCSB attack came to nothing. The ball fell kindly for Milanovic before he was hacked down by Juri Cisotti who was slightly surprisingly shown a straight red card. If FCSB had been happy to defend deep and let Aberdeen have the ball beforehand there was no other tactic considered now. The half played out without any further major incidents and Aberdeen trailed at the break.

The second half began with six substitutions, three from each team. Aberdeen clearly wanted to try and change their plan of attack whilst FCSB were looking to pack the defence and prevent any tired legs from presenting opportunities to Aberdeen. Amazingly it was FCSB who had the first chance of the second half. Two Aberdeen defenders both left a back pass to the other and Birligea nipped between them to claim it for himself. The defenders then both lunged for the ball taking themselves out in the process and leaving Birligea with acres of space to pick out Darius Olaru for an easy tap in at the back post on 47′.

Normal service was immediately resumed as FCSB settled for their lead and retreated further and further back. Jimmy Thelin made another double substitution bringing on Dante Polvara and Graeme Shinnie on 59′. Within two minutes Aberdeen had a goal back as Polvara used his strength to make space in the box before hitting a fierce shot on the turn that went in off the post. From this point it was clear that FCSB would be offering nothing, but could Aberdeen take advantage of their chances?

The substitutes were increasingly having an impact on the game with Shinnie and Polvara linking up on the left, Clarkson controlling the middle of the field and Sokler posing more of a threat up front. Aberdeen’s game plan was still quite formulaic though. Most of their passes were square or backwards and rather than trying to find space through the middle every attack was coming from one of the wings but the quality of crossing wasn’t generally good enough.

A few chances did fall to Aberdeen though with last ditch defending from FCSB sometimes the only thing preventing the equaliser. The crowd sensed the game was in the balance and the atmosphere around the ground grew to match the occasion. As the clock ticked closer to 90′ Sokler found himself with a great chance but his shot was blocked and went wide for a corner. From the corner though Sokler found some space and wasn’t to be denied again. A powerful header down towards the line went through Stefan Tarnovanu to bring the scores level. FCSB’s time wasting was now counting against them as they were desperate for the final whistle with Aberdeen throwing everything at them. There was still time for one more chance as some neat passing and a bit of head tennis in the box led to a good attempt from close range by Polvara but a big save from Tarnovanu meant the game finished 2 – 2.

Aberdeen did well to get back into it after being stunned by a couple of goals against the run of play. Opportunities to play against 10 men for 50 minutes don’t happen too often though and conceding early in the second half was unforgiveable. The tactics deployed by Aberdeen were too predictable and FCSB clearly knew what they were likely to face. Aberdeen’s late chance came after determined play through the middle and showed that FCSB were vulnerable to this and opportunities had probably been missed. The second leg in Romania next week promises to be a very difficult atmosphere and you suspect that Aberdeen will have to look quite different on the pitch to come away with the result they are after.

The Facts

• Ground
  • Pittodrie
• Home
  • Aberdeen
• Away
  • FCSB
• Competition
  • UEFA Europa League (Playoff Round)
• Result
  • 2 – 2
• Scorers
  • Dante Polvara, Ester Sokler | Daniel Birligea, Darius Olaru
• Attendance
  • 17,551
• Cost
  • £30
• Total distance travelled
  • 4 miles
• Transport
  • Walk
• My MotM
  • Dante Polvara, lots of the substitutes showed the drive that seemed to be lacking in the first half and Clarkson could have been the choice for his control of the middle of the pitch but Polvara scored within two minutes of coming on, looked inventive playing from the left, and could have won it right at the death.