Football
PA Sport 8y

Europa: Aberdeen cruise to victory while Hibernian lose to Brondby

Super-subs Jayden Stockley and Wes Burns both came off the bench to fire Aberdeen to a 3-0 victory against Ventspils at Pittodrie in the Europa League on Thursday.

Summer signing Stockley opened the scoring only six minutes after introduction during the second half of the first leg in the second qualifying round.

Adam Rooney then fired in a second goal for Aberdeen and debutant Burns, who only completed a loan from Bristol City hours before the game, got on the scoresheet late on to give the Reds a healthy lead to take to Latvia for next Thursday's return contest.

"Wes came on and scored with his first touch," Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes said. He did really well to get up ahead of their big centre forward.

"I thought 3-0 was a fairer reflection on the game given how relentless we were with our work in the second half."

Neil Lennon was sent to the stand on his Hibernian managerial debut as a goalkeeping howler consigned his team to a 1-0 defeat to Brondby.

It was a night of inauspicious debuts as Otso Virtanen gifted the Danes the lead just 16 seconds into his first appearance at Easter Road.

Hibernian's misfortune continued in the first leg of the second qualifying round when Jason Cummings was ruled offside as he netted in the 31st minute, a decision which annoyed Lennon so much that he was dismissed for his protests.

Hearts skipper Alim Ozturk rattled the crossbar as the visitors went agonisingly close to securing a win in the searing heat of Malta.

However, the Jambos will be confident of finishing the job at Tynecastle next week after dominating in their 0-0 stalemate against a limited Birkirkara side.

Conor Sammon also saw a goal contentiously disallowed after just thee minutes, while Jamie Walker was a constant threat.

For results from Thursday's 30 other Europa League first-leg ties, see the scoreboard page.

^ Back to Top ^