Recap
An emphatic win from the Dons on Thursday night, which sees them progress into the third round of the UEFA Europa League Qualifiers to face HNK Rijeka.
It was a master class from the team, and Sam Cosgrove deserves the plaudits – the top goal scorer in the UEFA Europa League so far after he bagged a hat-trick taking is goal tally for the season so far to six in four games.
He was joined on the scoresheet by Greg Leigh and Scott Wright, making it a 5-0 win on the night and 6-1 on aggregate.
Derek McInnes made one change to the side which drew 1-1 in Georgia last week. Greg Leigh came in for the injured Ash Taylor.
Nine minutes on the clock, and that break through opening goal came in the form of a nice build up from Lewis Ferguson, Ryan Hedges, Niall McGinn and Jon Gallagher who found Cosgrove in the box and Sam cut inside onto his right foot his shot taking a deflection to loop beyond Dino Hamzic.
It was a completely different game from Georgia the week before, the Dons were on form and in command of the game.
With the pressure on the visitors, it didn’t take long for the Dons to put the ball in the net again. This time Shay passed the ball out to Lewis Ferguson, the midfielder putting the cross to Cosgrove who headed the ball in from six-yards.
Towards the end of the second half, Sachkhere came into the game a wee bit, putting some pressure on the Dons but to no effect.
Into the second half, and it was clear that the Dons meant business. Jon Gallagher was on the end of a cross from Niall McGinn and went close from six yards only for Hamzdic to save the shot.
But our third wasn’t long away and in the 58th minute when Greg Leigh headed the ball into the top left of goal.
The fourth goal came six minutes later when Jon Gallagher passed the ball to Scott Wright and put the low shot into the net. Not bad for only being two minutes on the park.
Sam Cosgrove got his hat-trick with ten minutes left on the clock, after firing into the bottom left corner of the net.
It was an encouraging display and will see us well as we head into the next round against HNK Rijeka of Croatia next Thursday.
