To the dismay of Dons fans everywhere, Aberdeen have been eliminated from the Europa League at the third qualifying round stage once again.
A dreadful first half seen Derek McInnes’ side trailing 2-0 on the night, with a Funso Ojo red card to contend with also.
Second half proceedings weren’t much better, with the game all but grinding to a halt. It finished 2-0 on the night to the Croatians, with a 4-0 aggregate scoreline.
Overall it was an ugly night for the Dons. It’s fair to say some Aberdeen fans weren’t exactly pleased with the result
https://twitter.com/IconicHogie/status/1162099637622321157
Aberdeen fans quite rightly livid after another Europa League slump
It was only a couple of weeks ago everything seemed so positive around Pittodrie. Three defeats on the bounce and a European exit later, there’s a sense of doom and gloom around the place once more.
With the task of scoring twice without reply to level the tie and three to win it before things kicked off, it was always going to be difficult. The disappointing thing for Dons supporters will be they didn’t even make a game of it.
After Rijeka scored within the first ten minutes the tie was done. Everything else was just insult to injury.
Aberdeen are yet to reach the play-off round of Europa League qualifying. Rijeka are a decent side, but they aren’t amazing. This tie represented a decent opportunity to break into the play-offs and they bottled it.
Fans are tired of this narrative. McInnes has to work out a plan for how to deal with these European fixtures at this stage, because whatever he’s been doing all these years clearly isn’t working.
Over the course of two legs Rijeka were more than deserving of the victory. It’s another year of domestic action now for the Dons.