Brave Dons dump out Dnipro

Aberdeen made it a memorable week in Europe for Scottish clubs with a 1-1 against Dnipro to go through on the away goals rule.

Dons cap memorable week for Scottish sides

Aberdeen made it a memorable week in Europe for Scottish clubs with a battling 1-1 draw with Dnipro to go through on the away goals rule. Following the success of Rangers and Celtic in the UEFA Champions League Aberdeen made it a Scottish hat-trick to progress to the group stages of the Uefa Cup with a hard-fought draw. Darren Mackie gave Aberdeen a first half lead with his 50th goal for the club on 28 minutes with a fine diving header. Dnipro drew level 15 minutes from time with a fortuitous strike from Andriy Vorobey to set up a frantic finale. The home side threw everything at Aberdeen in the closing stages, but Aberdeen held on to secure their passage into the next round. Zander Diamond was the first Aberdeen player to touch the ball after almost two minutes when his block forced a corner, and a minute later Jamie Langfield came to his team's rescue with a brilliant save.

Dnipro cut through the Dons defence but Langfield pushed away a low drive by L'opa from 12 yards.

Mackie silenced the previously noisy home support when he headed home Foster's drilled cross into the six-yard box.

The full-back had done brilliantly to lob the ball over Denys Andriyenko and reach the byline after Smith returned his throw-in.

Sergiy Nazarenko soon had an opportunity to level but his 25-yard free-kick bounced into the arms of Langfield, who almost set up Mackie with a quick kick-out.

Dnipro were left badly exposed in the centre of the defence but goalkeeper Vyacheslav Kernozenko raced out his box to clear just before Mackie could reach the ball.

Dnipro came closer in the 63rd minute when Rusol met Kravchenko's inswinging corner at the near post but the ball bounced off the top of the bar.

The attacks were relentless and L'opa smashed a 20-yard shot just wide before Langfield touched over Kravchenko's excellent 30-yard strike.

Kravchenko caused more panic among the several hundred visiting fans with a dangerous deep corner but defender Bogdan Shershun volleyed well over from 12 yards after Rusol's header.

Steve Lovell replaced Mackie in the 71st minute and the Dons immediately came close to a second when Diamond headed just wide from Barry Nicholson's corner.

But Dnipro levelled when Andrew Considine's attempted clearance cannoned off Vorobey eight yards out and flashed past Langfield.

Moments later Nazarenko crashed a 20-yard strike off the bar. The playmaker then set up Rusol from a corner but his glancing header cleared the far post.

Kravchenko also struck the bar from 20 yards but the Dons held on in a tense four minutes of injury time with Langfield pulling off another great diving save from Denisov.

Dnipropetrovsk	Team Statistics	Aberdeen
1	Goals	1
0	1st Half Goals	1
8	Shots on Target	1
15	Shots off Target	2
9	Blocked Shots	1
10	Corners	2
19	Fouls	20
2	Offsides	0
1	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	0
88.4	Passing Success	55.9
11	Tackles	17
81.8	Tackles Success	82.4
78.3	Possession	21.7
67.1	Territorial Advantage	32.9