Aberdeen boss Barry Robson has urged his side to go out and show no fear against Eintracht Frankfurt as the 25/1 Pittordie underdogs kick off their Europea Conference League group stages campaign with a daunting task in Germany.
The Dons have seriously underperformed this season and only goal difference has kept them off the bottom of the league.
They failed to get past Swedish champions BK Hacken and dropped down to the Europa Conference League, where they start their campaign against the team that won the Europa League last year.
They are up against an elite side who just collected £90 million from PSG for Randal Kolo Muani and the Bundesliga stalwarts are extremely strong at their 58,000-capacity Waldstadion ground.
That's led to bookies writing off the Dons who are their biggest ever odds to win a European match, but Robson has urged his men to stand up to Eintracht.
He said: "It doesn’t scare me - it’s exciting.
"You want to play against top players, top teams and in top venues. If you don’t want to do that then you shouldn’t be in this game.
"That’s the mindset all the players are in, this is what you work so hard for and I think they’ll enjoy it when they’re out there.
"That’s what I’ve told them - go and enjoy it.
"Of course we believe, we know they’re a good side with some real quality players.
"But this is a game of football and we have good players ourselves, so we want to come here and try to impose ourselves on them and I’m sure we’ll do that.
"There’s excitement in the group, the players have done well to get here and it’s a brilliant competition to play in.
"It’s the first time in a long time we’ve been here, it’s a great venue and a great team to play against.
"We want to perform on this stage. So go and enjoy it, impose yourself on the game and bring a positive performance. In my experience of playing real top teams in Europe when I was a player, we managed to perform really well in them.
"First thing you have to do is make sure you’re ready for it, they’ll move the ball at speed and move you around. Top teams change formations and tweak bits in the game you need to adapt to.
"So you need to be ready for it and fight for the club.
"We have watched a lot of them over the last few days, we know the system they play and how they want to play. So we have done a fair bit of work on them, the players know all about them.
"We know it’s going to be difficult but that doesn’t stop us going out there and performing, trying to get a result."
And Aberdeen goalkeeper Kelle Roos has pleaded for patience because he insists the new-look Aberdeen team will take time to gel.
The Dutch keeper played in front of three new central defenders in the weekend defeat at Hearts - Slobodan Rubezic, Stefan Gartenmann and Richard Jensen.
And he insists they will come good, ahead of the clash against Mario Goetze and co..
He said: "When you have new players you need to give them time. They are good players, we work with them every day.
"We believe in our ability, that we will pull through this the other end and be happy. We want to go to the big stages and have to recruit players for that. If I could put my finger on it I would have done it and tried to solve it.
"If we hit our stride we can cause problems for teams. We have a lot of faith in our own ability. But at the same time we have to go out and show it.
"It could give us a great lift. It would be massive for the team if we can get a result."
Meanwhile, Eintracht Frankfurt manager Dino Toppmoller insists the game against the Dons is the first step on the road for them to repeat their triumph last year when they beat Rangers to win the Europa League.
He said: "You have to take the first step and that’s the Aberdeen game, then we will see how the rest of the tournament presents itself.
"The history speaks for itself with the victory over Rangers in Seville but you have to get through the group stages first.
"We are the clear favourites so we want to justify our status as that. We have no reason to underestimate Aberdeen, we are focused on the task.
"Aberdeen are a team who have good strikers with Bojan Miovski and Duk, and in the midfield Leighton Clarkson is good on the ball and plays it well through the lines.
"They are hungry for second balls as well, so it’s not a typical Scottish team playing long balls. They have quality all over the pitch and set up well with three at the back."
And goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, who helped them defeat Rangers in the penalty shootout against Rangers in Seviile, insisted he respected Aberdeen.
He said: "We know about Aberdeen, it will be a tough assignment for us. "We haven’t started well in the league as we know, but we can’t think about that tomorrow. Aberdeen are a good team with some technically good players so we know what we will face.”
