Dons switch Moldova tie

The tie is switched to Moldova's National Stadium

Aberdeen will face their longest-ever trip in Europe to play a club that manager Ebbe Skovdahl has never heard of.

The draw for the qualifying round of the Uefa Cup has paired the one-time European Cup-winners' Cup winners with Moldovan side Nistru Otaci.

And the Dons' first step was to have the tie switched from Nistru's 1,000 capacity Calaraseuca Stadium to the National Stadium.

Aberdeen general manager David Johnston was at the draw in Uefa headquarters in Switzerland to witness the draw and attempt to find out more about their opponents.

We will definitely have them watched

Dons boss Ebbe Skovdahl

What he learned is that Nistru have the smallest stadium in the Moldovan league yet finished last season as runners-up to runaway leaders Sheriff Tiraspol.

Sheriff also defeated Nistru 3-2 after extra time to complete the domestic double.

Nistru had also qualified in for the Uefa Cup last season but went out in the qualifying round 3-1 on aggregate to Debreceni VSC of Hungary despite winning the home leg 1-0.

Formed in 1953, Nistru were previously known as Dnestr until the Soviet Union was broken up into smaller states.

Moldova is one of the poorest countries to emerge from the former superpower, both in terms of economics and footballing prowess.

But Aberdeen suffered the embarrassment of going out to Irish part-timers Bohemian on away goals two seasons ago and will take nothing for granted.

Skovdahl said: "I have to admit I have never heard of this team, so it is difficult to say much about them.

"But we will definitely have them watched and I am happy to have them at Pittodrie in the second leg as we will know what we will have to do then.

Ebbe Skovdahl happy to away from home

"I'm sure we will have a few travelling fans cheering us on."

A Dons spokesman estimated up to 200 fans would make the trip - once they had found Otaci on the map.

"It's in the north of the country; that's about all we know at the moment," he joked.

Now they will instead head to the 18,500 capacity National Stadium in the capital, Chisinau.

Moldova is jammed between Romania and the Ukraine, with Otaci on the northern border with the other former Soviet state.

Aberdeen had been seeded for the draw and could have been paired with IBV Vestmannayjar (Iceland), Gomel (Belarus), or Dundalk (Republic of Ireland).