Stefan Gartenmann was the player who spoke at the matchday -1 press conference at Pittodrie Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

“It is very important.

“All these European games are crucial especially when it is only six games to decide who goes through and who doesn’t.

“With only one point after two games we know we have to start winning if we want to be one of the two teams that go through. A win would get us into a much better position than we are in now.

“Let’s hope that PAOK are going to take a little day off with their six points and we can take advantage of that. We are undefeated in five games so the confidence is there. We believe we can beat PAOK. The preparation we have had has been good. We are ready and excited. I haven’t played a game in nearly three weeks so I’m buzzing to get started.

“We know PAOK are a good team with a lot of quality individuals, so we have to be sharp in our one-on-ones.

“They have very strong wingers.

“I have seen a lot of Taison who played on the wing and was at Shakhtar. Vieirinha played for Portugal and Wolfsburg. And the striker is a handful.

“In general, they have a lot of experience and a good mixture of experience and young, talented players on the verge of breaking through. It will be very difficult but we are a good team too. We need to be sharp in our defensive structure then hopefully we can use the conditions and our recent form to our advantage and get a win.

“It will be quite a different game to the Helsinki one.

“In some ways their style of play is similar, but I expect it will be another kind of game. It is going to be about us finding the balance between going into a more low standing point in our structure and going high when that is needed. The things we can learn from the past two games in Europe is when to go and when to not. The balance between those two things is crucial tomorrow night.

“The fans can play a massive part. I felt something quite magical when we played HJK. There’s just something about Pittodrie when the stadium lights are on and it is dark out. There’s something happening.

“I heard from one of the Hacken players I know a little bit that he was quite surprised when they played here at how Pittodrie has that ability to frighten the opponent a bit. We tend to get a few extra percentages out of having the fans.

“There is something extraordinary about Pittodrie, especially on a European night.”

Photos by Ross Johnston/Newsline Media