dons in europe

European Pedigree From KR Reykjavik at Pittodrie to Hertha Berlin in the German capital and the 98 other matches in between, Aberdeen have a long and distinguished record in the European arena, reaching their 150th European match in late August 2021 against Qarabag at Pittodrie.
After the ease with which they dispatched the Icelandic part-timers in their debut tie, the Dons went on to face stiffer opposition and in that first decade of European football they struggled when matched against the experience of Spanish, German and Italian opposition.

They created an unfortunate piece of history in 1970 when they became the first team to be eliminated from Europe on penalty kicks at the hands of Honved.
All this was to be part of the learning process and by 1980 they made their first appearance in the European Cup after being denied the opportunity in 1955 when Hibernian represented Scotland despite Aberdeen being the champions of the day. In the second round the mighty Liverpool handed the Dons another lesson as they eased through on a 5-0 aggregate.

Two seasons later all the experience gained since 1967 came together as the Dons marched to their historic European win in Gothenburg, defeating Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on he way.
The Super Cup was added later in the year giving the Dons the honour of being the only Scottish Club to win two European trophies.

The Dons broke new ground in 2007 when, competing in the Europa League, they defeated Dnipro FC to qualify for the group stages of the competition for the first time, only to fall victim to Bayern Munich (one of the few Euopean teams that we have played in more than one tournament)in the knockout stages.