Rijeka 0-3 Aberdeen: Derek McInnes hails 'fantastic' result

Aberdeen were 3-0 winners against Rijeka

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes was "immensely satisfied" with the 3-0 Europa League qualifying win over Rijeka in the Croatian heat.

Goals from Andrew Considine, Peter Pawlett and Kenny McLean gave the Dons a first leg lead against a side defending a 12-game unbeaten run at home in Europe.

"To win a game here 3-0 is a fantastic result," McInnes told BBC Scotland.

"Those conditions were torture at times, it was a battle of endurance."

Rijeka started well and hit the post in the opening 10 minutes but the visitors slowly grew into the game with McInnes feeling that they got their goals at the right time.

He said: "It's a job well done from everybody tonight. It's immensely satisfying. We should enjoy it and feel good about ourselves.

"I was pleased to get the water break to be honest. We just needed to be a bit braver with our pressing game because I felt they were enjoying the game in the first 20 minutes, but from there we gave a very competent, mature, smart performance and we were clinical.

"It shows what can be done with the players because Rijeka are a good team. The level of teams that they've managed to see off would suggest that was a very good job from everybody at Aberdeen."

Aberdeen now go into Friday's third qualifying round draw confident they will be the side that progresses, though McInnes has warned his players that the Croatians are too good a side to be written off.

Rijeka have defeated Stuttgart, Feyenoord and Standard Liege in recent seasons, as well as drawing with Sevilla, Lyon and Real Betis.

"We've got to realise it's only half-time, we've seen 3-0 leads quickly go at half-time so we've still got work to do to get through the tie, but we've given ourselves a fantastic opportunity," he said.

"They've got too much quality in their team for them to give this up. I think they're a team who've shown real fight and character over the last while, so we've got to be ready for that and make sure they see a similar Aberdeen performance."