One more European adventure awaits the Dons in Prague, Czechia. The game kicks off at 8 pm Scotland time on Thursday 18th December at the Epet Arena, named by an expat Geordie.

Sparta Prague are currently second in the Czech First League behind their city rivals Slavia Prague. They qualified for the Conference League by finishing fourth last season and negotiating three rounds before making the league phase. They are sixth in the Conference League table.

I don't fancy this game at all. A 0-3 defeat beckons for us, but it won't matter. As long as we don't make an arse of ourselves like we did in Greece.

This is going to be a looooong last 25 odd minutes

Truly awful, so far off the pace, switched off. 

Aye,what a pile o shite.Oot

Officially worst manager in this league

55 minutes ago, Panda said:

We're becoming very predictable. Name the wrong line-up, fix it at half-time. 

Thelin mixed it up tonight by not fixing anything at half-time.

I think it's the weird combination of the white top & red shorts 

Shame. I think we were really starting to come onto a game in those last fifteen seconds.

YAAAS Rapid Vienna own goal takes us to 2nd bottom

Bottom of duffers league, below Shelbourne etc. FFS. Wish I hated football at times. 

Well, glad that's over.   A convincing defeat but hopefully not an overly morale sapping one. 

5 minutes ago, Brochred said:

YAAAS Rapid Vienna own goal takes us to 2nd bottom

Successful European campaign imo

4 minutes ago, Shetland Don said:

Bottom of duffers league, below Shelbourne etc. FFS. Wish I hated football at times. 

It's not a league though, is it. It's a contrived bollocks set of games where different teams play others at random. It's tragic as fuck that people actually came up with it in the first place. You can't even properly slag us off for finishing bottom because we played different teams than others around us. I'm fucking glad we're avoiding this format for imbeciles next season (unless we win the league).

I get Sparta had a similar formation to us, but once again we played three at the back when we really didn't need to. 

All three at the back really does for us is give us an extra man when teams throw in crosses. But on nights like tonight, we can't hold onto the ball, and the way Sparta played meant any 'advantage' of having an extra man was lost.

As much as they are struggling at the moment, Celtic will play a similar way on Sunday, and Wilfried Nancy will absolutely have Maeda and Hatate cutting inside and finding the space to get shots away.

So we played 6 teams and 5 finish in the top 8. Not a great experience but we were not outplayed/beaten by shit teams.

Well thank fuck that’s over- a total waste of everyones time.

We’ll get all the usual guff about learning from the experience, but there’s no learning that can bridge the gap in basic technical ability & game intelligence with this lot.

Only positive, no serious injuries on that horrific surface. Crocked two of their own players.

Yes it was a tough draw, but we finished behind 2 Irish teams & Lincoln fuckin Red Imps. I bet theres a few others in there with smaller budgets than us too.

We’re absolutely miles off it at this level, miles.

Jesus wept… 🤦‍♂️

Still in the ground

 

 Whilst we didn't play that great, can I just say that Sparta were probably the poorest team we have played in Europe this season 

1 hour ago, Panda said:

I get tonight is a tough watch, but overall Europe has been good for us. Four games where we have played relatively well in, we've banked £6m, and by qualifying we've attracted a few players.

But, for those who don't enjoy it, be encouraged that if we do qualify next season, it'll likely all be done and dusted by the end of August.

I don’t know if I’d say it’s been good for us. It’s been a learning experience during a time we’ve played pretty pish, and realized many of our summer signings are not good enough, plus players like Topi palaversa and clarkson have not kicked on as we’d hoped. Maybe Europe has helped us figure all that out earlier and we approach January a little differently, rather than less games in the autumn, less rotation, and more change would come next summer. 

44 minutes ago, The.Moog said:

Well thank fuck that’s over- a total waste of everyones time.

We’ll get all the usual guff about learning from the experience, but there’s no learning that can bridge the gap in basic technical ability & game intelligence with this lot.

Only positive, no serious injuries on that horrific surface. Crocked two of their own players.

Yes it was a tough draw, but we finished behind 2 Irish teams & Lincoln fuckin Red Imps. I bet theres a few others in there with smaller budgets than us too.

We’re absolutely miles off it at this level, miles.

Jesus wept… 🤦‍♂️

But that’s not really true, is it, because they’ve played almost completely different teams to us. Which is not to say we’ve covered ourselves in glory, clearly we haven’t. But you can’t even take anything meaningful from the table.

I know it was Aberdeen, but I couldn't have cared any less about tonight and got exactly what I expected, nothing.

I hope those over in Prague had a great time, barring the football. It's a great place.

Thank goodness it is all over and we get back to winning ways at Parkhead on Sunday.

 

 

18 minutes ago, Don Julio said:

But that’s not really true, is it, because they’ve played almost completely different teams to us. Which is not to say we’ve covered ourselves in glory, clearly we haven’t. But you can’t even take anything meaningful from the table.

True, they say the league doesn’t lie, but that’s definitely not the case here with the ridiculous format.

Doesn’t change the fact we’ve performed poorly overall again and are absolutely miles off it at European level.

I’d also suggest that tonight showed exactly why Polvara and Clarkson are deemed surplus to requirements - though they’re not the only ones tbf…

19 minutes ago, OneBrianIrvine. said:

Harsh to judge Clarkson on tonight - he was out of position in a wide open midfield.

 

True, but nobody can say he remotely did anything to change anyone at the clubs view of him.

Poor attitude all round…

9 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

So we played 6 teams and 5 finish in the top 8. Not a great experience but we were not outplayed/beaten by shit teams.

They only finished that high because they played us 

6 hours ago, The.Moog said:

True, but nobody can say he remotely did anything to change anyone at the clubs view of him.

Poor attitude all round…

I didn't think he was great, but the role plays to none of his strengths, and all of his weaknesses. Yet, when you compare to Karlsson on the opposite side, there wasn't a significant difference between the two performances.

6 hours ago, The.Moog said:

True, but nobody can say he remotely did anything to change anyone at the clubs view of him.

Poor attitude all round…

To take a player, with an alleged poor attitude, in from being out in the cold, then not play him correctly, reflects more badly on the manager rather than the player.

He (Clarkson) might be a petulant dick, who wants out of the club, but last night was more on Thelin than Clarkson.