Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen 2 HNK Rijeka 2 (agg. 5-2): Anxious moments, but Dons set for Kazakhstan

Jonny Hayes, right, with David Goodwillie after bringing the Dons level.
Jonny Hayes, right, with David Goodwillie after bringing the Dons level.

Aberdeen have booked an 8,000-mile round-trip to face Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty in the Europa League third qualifying round.

However, they had to work hard to do so, despite a healthy lead from the first leg of their tie against HNK Rijeka.

All the goals in an entertaining 2-2 draw which gave Aberdeen a 5-2 aggregate win came after the interval at Pittodrie.

Niall McGinn and Jonny Hayes netted the goals that saw the Dons through after the visitors had gone 2-0 up thanks to Marin Tomasov and Zoran Kvrzic.

With the Croats trailing 3-0 from the first leg it could be expected that they would burst out of the traps. But despite enjoying plenty of possession, they rarely troubled the Aberdeen defence.

In fact, the best chance of the first half went Aberdeen’s way when McGinn found space to flash a 20-yard strike towards the bottom-right corner of Simon Sluga’s goal, but the goalkeeper was able to parry away.

The hosts could have gone in front shortly after the restart when an inswinging corner from Hayes on the right found Ash Taylor on the six-yard line, but the defender had to adjust his body and could not direct his header on target.

Rijeka were far from out of things, and Roman Bezjak again found space in the area only to slice his shot well over the bar.

The near-16,000 crowd inside Pittodrie were silenced when the visitors did get a goal.

A well-worked passage on the right saw Tomasov work his way into the area, feinting to shoot before side-footing into the bottom-left corner from 16 yards.

Aberdeen should have been level just seconds later. Captain Ryan Jack won the ball in midfield and played in David Goodwillie down the right.

His cross looked perfect for Hayes at the back post, but the winger could not direct his diving header on target.

Moments later the visitors made it 2-0.

There seemed little danger as substitute Kvrzic gathered the ball 30 yards from goal but, after a couple of strides forward, he unleashed a thunderbolt which took a deflection and looped past Danny Ward and into the net.

But almost straight from the restart Shay Logan’s clipped pass down the wing fell to McGinn, who cut inside before steering a low shot in off the far post from the corner of the six-yard box.

And after 72 minutes, the three-goal aggregate lead was restored.

Goodwille benefited from Stefan Ristovski’s misjudged leap to scamper away down the left before pulling back for Hayes to find the bottom-left corner of the net from eight yards.

Although the visitors enjoyed the bulk of the possession for the remainder of the game, their only real chance came in stoppage time when Tomasov curled a free-kick over the crossbar.

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes said: “They really tested us, but we handled it excellently and created enough chances.”