Dons boss Derek McInnes has vowed to put an end to Scotland’s misery in Tbilisi when facing FC Chikhura Sachkhere tonight.
The Georgian capital and the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena have been a graveyard for Scottish football hopes in recent years.
Aberdeen will tonight face the Georgians in the Europa League second qualifying round at the 54,500 capacity stadium.
The stadium has been the scene of two disastrous defeats for the Scottish national side in recent years that fatally holed Euro championship qualification hopes.
Scotland lost 2-0 at the stadium in 2007 and 1-0 in 2015 to kill qualification bids for Euro 2008 and 2016.
McInnes is determined there will be no Tbilisi pain for his side despite temperatures of around 30C.
He said: “We are very mindful of the Scotland team coming here and being undone.
“Emerging countries like Georgia are getting stronger and stronger.
“You may not have heard too much about a team, but when you dig deeper and deeper you can find things like they are backed financially by a wealthy owner.
“That seems to be the case here and the level of player they are able to attract.
“This game is over two legs for us and we don’t expect to win the tie in the first leg.
“But we certainly don’t want to be out of the tie in the first leg.
“We have to get the balance between attacking and defending right against a capable side.
“And try to take a positive result back to Aberdeen.”
Despite a late kick off at 8.45pm local time, the mercury is still predicted to be close to 30C with stifling humidity.
McInnes insists he has previous experience of dealing with high temperatures in Europe and refuses to make it an issue.
He said: “It feels humid enough and the kick-off time being pushed back may help things.
“We played in similar conditions in Macedonia, Kazakhstan and in Rijeka in Croatia, which was probably the worst of them all in terms of that side of it.
“It is another challenge and an obstacle put in front of the team at this stage when we are still searching for that top fitness.
“However, we have shown in the past that has never really hampered us.
“I am hoping tonight that will not hamper us as once the ball rolls we will see the competitive side of the team.
“You just have to deal with the outside factors – whether that is an Astro pitch or hot conditions.
“The game is too important to be worrying or dwelling on that.”
Chikhura Sachkhere are 21 games into their domestic season and knocked Luxembourg side CS Fola Esch out in the last round.
McInnes had both those ties scouted and believes tonight’s clash will be a step up from RoPS Rovaniemi of Finland.
He said: “Once the game starts you kind of have a better idea.
“They are similar to a lot of teams we have played against where they are happy in possession and are good technical players.
“We set out to try and dominate possession of the ball as they support their main striker quickly.
“There are four behind their main striker and they like to take a touch and go past their main striker when they break.
“They have a good counter attacking threat and a lot of players very comfortable on the ball.
“When we watched them in their own league, maybe something to do with the temperatures over here, it does seem a slightly slower pace to what we normally play at.
“They had two very impressive performances against Fola Esch and handled both games very well.
“That is the two games we have really concentrated on and we see their capabilities.
“I would expect the Georgians to be a step up from Rovaniemi.
“When you progress through the rounds you expect that.”
A crowd of around 1,000 is anticipated at the 54,500 capacity stadium.
Chikhura Sachkhere have had to play their tie at the national arena as their own 2,000-capacity Central Stadium does not meet the requirements set down by UEFA to host a Euro tie.
They have travelled 150 miles from their base, a journey that takes three hours.
The Georgians are so desperate to boost crowd numbers they have made tonight’s game free entry to supporters of both teams.
It is a bid to entice neutral Georgians in the nation’s capital to come along.
Less than 1,000 fans, 50 of them from Aberdeen, are expected tonight.
Aberdeen will be without Greg Leigh, Mikey Devlin and Connor McLennan for the tie.
None of them made the six-hour, 3,200-mile flight to Georgia due to injury.
However, Craig Bryson and recent £125,000 signing from Scunthorpe Funso Ojo are both in contention to make their Dons debuts.
“Greg Leigh, Mikey Devlin, Connor McLennan and Ethan Ross have been left back,” McInnes said.
“Ethan and Connor picked up little strains up at Keith (in a friendly) on Saturday.
“They are both soft tissue injuries, nothing serious, and I think both will be fine to train in the middle of next week.
“Greg we feel can probably make the second leg.
“He was probably just too keen on pushing it.
“We would rather get him 100% as we said about Bryson.
“Mikey is making progress but is going to be two or three weeks away.
“Bryson has travelled and Ojo is in the squad.
“Both of them are a bit behind the rest of our lads, but both are able to contribute for some part of the game anyway.”
In a quirk of fate, should Aberdeen progress past the Georgians they will set up a third qualifying round clash with HNK Rijeka of Georgia.
Aberdeen beat Rijeka away from home 3-0 four years ago to progress in Europe – one of the most memorable Euro wins by a Scottish team.
McInnes refuses to look beyond the Georgians.
He said: “I am reluctant to speak too much about Rijeka as we have to deal with this team.”
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