Aberdeen landed the £5million jackpot by finishing third – but Barry Nicholson knows there are memories money can’t buy ahead in Europe.
Dons were left celebrating at the weekend, as Celtic lifted the Scottish Cup and ensured they went into the play-off round of the Europa League. If they get through that they go into the group sections and if they lose they fall into the same stage of the Europa Conference League, guaranteed games until Christmas.
Nicholson was part of the last Aberdeen squad that last made the group stages 16 years ago. Jimmy Calderwood’s side not only got through their group but caused Bayern Munich a brief scare in the knockout stage. Nicholson admitted: “It will be amazing. It’s what Aberdeen is all about. They need to be constantly pushing for those European places, cup finals and trophies. I know from being up there, those are the demands. Barry has done absolutely brilliantly to get Aberdeen into this situation.
“Going away to some of the places we did on that European run was amazing. The fans had some great trips away and we all really enjoyed it because you are playing against top players and top clubs. Aberdeen need to be playing at this level. Hopefully, they’ll get a draw the fans can really enjoy.”
This Aberdeen team got direct entry to the group stage where Nicholson’s team had to battle through a qualifier against Dnipro, where Darren Mackie scored his famous goal. Robson’s side is waiting to see who they could face in the first qualifier with Lugano and the winners of Olympiakos or Slavia Prague amongst the options.
Nicholson recalled: “We just had the two ties of Dnipro and if we had lost we would have been out. Aberdeen go into the play-off round and Conference League group stages even if they lose, which is great.
“We’ve seen how West Ham have done in that tournament this season. It would be a big thing to get into the group stages of either competition.
“There should be some great ties and it will be brilliant for Aberdeen. Fingers crossed, though, they get through the first play-off because the Europa League is the bigger one.”
The group stages are where things really lit up for Nicholson and the Dons. They faced the likes of Atletico Madrid, Panathinaikos, Copenhagen and Lokomotiv Moscow.
The Fleetwood youth coach claimed: “Panathinaikos game was the first one. We actually played quite well. We got beat 3-0 but we played well.
“We had a good chance to make it 1-1 but we never took it. We drew with Lokomotiv Moscow. They had Branislav Ivanovic, who went to Chelsea, and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, who signed for Everton.
“The Atletico Madrid game, Jimmy wanted us to keep the crowd quiet for 20 minutes –they hit the post after 14 seconds! I sat on the bench because I was ill on the flight and then on the hotel. We had to beat Copenhagen at home to qualify, which we did. We managed to qualify with four points because the top three went through.”
Dons went into the knockout stage where they drew Bayern. They drew 2-2 at Pittodrie before the Germans brought out the big guns and blasted them away at the Allianz Arena. Nicholson said: “They had some calibre of player. They scored, we got 2-1 ahead, then they levelled. Everybody was shocked that we had drawn the game and given ourselves a chance over there.
“They brought Lukas Podolski in from the start and Mark Van Bommell and Oliver Kahn returned for the second leg. We played really well, it was 0-0 after 20 minutes but we quickly found ourselves 2-0 down and that killed the tie.
“It was amazing, training and playing at the Allianz. Games like that you never forget. Brilliant nights to play in. When Pittodrie is rocking it really is some place to play
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