VLADIMIR WEISS won’t have been the first person to stumble bleary-eyed into an Aberdeen hotel at 5 in the morning. Not the first not to want to talk about it. “Do you not want to speak about football?” asked the Kairat Almaty manager, bemused by a the line of questioning about his team’s 4000-mile journey from Kazakhstan to Scotland - via Moscow and Belgium - that was delayed by the best part of three hours.
Just how much of an effect this extended trip had on the Kairat players will became clear at Pittodrie on Thursday evening when they try to defend their one-goal advantage in the second leg of the teams’ Europa League third round qualifying tie. But Weiss, father of the former Rangers player of the same name, did not look to make an issue of it.
“It’s a long way to come from Kazakhstan so you expect a long journey,” he said, occasionally using the services of a translator that seemed unnecessary given his more-than-reasonable grasp of English. “The players were a bit tired but they relaxed during the day. I do not think there will be a problem.”
Weiss, who pinpointed in-form Kenny McLean as a player he will be keeping particularly close tabs on, revealed it would not be his intention to resort to spoiling tactics to ensure his team’s safe passage through to the play-off round.
“The fans will see an amazing match,” he added. “We are not going to just sit and defend. We will go out to play attacking football because I believe we will need to score to go through. The plan is to win the match.
“But Aberdeen are a good team with a strong coach. They came back from Kazakhstan and had a very good result against Dundee United. They always seem to score goals in every game so we have to be prepared for them.”
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