St Johnstone: Mannus, Shaughnessy, Anderson, Wright, Scobbie, Brown, Brian Easton, O'Halloran, Sutton, MacLean, Kane. Subs: Clark, McKay, Caddis, Cummins, Thomson, Gilchrist, McLaren.

Alashkert: Kasparov, Fofana, Arakelyan, Usenya, Muradyan, Bareghamyan, Artak Grigoryan, Veranyan, Poghosyan, Minasyan, Narek Gyozalyan. Subs: Khachatryan, Dos Santos, Voskanyan, Manasyan, Ghazaryan, Gevorg Karapetyan, Balabekyan.

Referee: Fredy Fautrel (France)

Image source, SNS Group

Aberdeen: Ward, Shinnie, Considine, Taylor, Logan, Hayes, Jack, Flood, McLean, McGinn, Rooney. Subs: Brown, Smith, Robson, Pawlett, Goodwillie, Quinn, Shankland.

Shkendija Tetovo: Jovanovski, Todorovski, Polozani, Cuculi, Abdula, Juffo, Alimi, Demiri, Junior, Hasani, Ibraimi. Subs: Azizi, Bejtulai, Imeri, Kirovski, Vrucina, Huseini, Totre.

Referee: Nikoloj Hanni (Switzerland)

Shkendija's summer signing, Besart Ibraimi, is handed a start having inspired the Macedonians in Skopje after coming on as a substitute last week and he replaces Bojan Vrucina up front.

As expected, Mark Reynolds misses out for Aberdeen with a shoulder injury picked up in Macedonia. Andrew Considine is preferred to Paul Quinn, the summer signing from Ross County, as his replacement in central defence. It means that Graeme Shinnie moves back to left-back, with Kenny McLean coming into midfield.

What it boils down to is that both ties hang in the balance and the Dons' Derek McInnes and Saints' Tommy Wright will be hoping their predictions are correct and that their charges benefit most from the milder home climate and an extra week of match preparation. Both will know there is much room for improvement, although at least Aberdeen showed in the first half last week that they have a passing game suited to European competition.

Is that me being a typically pessimistic Scot? Certainly, St Johnstone will have to up their game after they struggled to even break out of their own half faced with the searing heat and a clever Alashkert side in Armenia. Meanwhile, Aberdeen were perhaps fortunate to escape their hot reception in Macedonia with a 1-1 draw after they struggled in the second half against Shkendija.

Wimbledon hasn't even finished and Scotland's first two Europa League entrants could very well be out of it before Andy Murray plays his semi-final.