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Peter Pawlett (left) put Aberdeen two ahead with a second half diving header

Andrew Considine heads Aberdeen in front

Peter Pawlett adds second after earlier effort offside

Kenny McLean scores first goal for club to make it 3-0

Second leg at Pittodrie next week

Aberdeen secured a first-leg lead with an impressive win over Rijeka in the Europa League second qualifying round.

Marin Tomasov rattled the post as the Croatian side started strongly but Andrew Considine headed Niall McGinn's corner past goalkeeper Ivan Vargic.

Peter Pawlett had a goal disallowed for offside but later found the net with a diving header from Shay Logan's cross.

The Dons sensed more goals and Kenny McLean scored his first for the club with a left-foot volley.

Aberdeen can look forward to Friday's draw for the third round of qualifiers confident of progress.

The overall performance was another indication of improvements made by the Dons under manager Derek McInnes.

This was Rijeka's first home defeat in continental competition in 13 games, and even Europa League champions Sevilla failed to win at the Stadion Kantrida last season.

Peter Pawlett, who earlier had a goal disallowed, met Shay Logan's cross with a diving header to double Aberdeen's lead

The Dons had to survive a difficult opening phase of play and pacy winger Tomasov could have scored twice in the first 10 minutes.

First he stole into the area but snatched his shot well wide of the far post. Then left-back Marin Leovic raced clear and picked out the winger with a perfect cross that he somehow knocked against the post from six yards.

Aberdeen slowly worked their way into the game but McInnes was frustrated when they squandered a three-on-two counter-attack before Ash Taylor's long throw caused problems for Vargic, who almost spilled the ball into the net.

On-loan Liverpool goalkeeper Danny Ward pulled off a terrific save to hold a Moises Lima Magalhaes glancing header when the Brazilian thought he had scored.

There was a break midway through the half to allow the players to take on fluids given the debilitating heat, but it was Aberdeen's performance that took the steam out of home side.

A set-piece routine caused havoc in the home area, and when McGinn directed the ball to the back post, Considine soared to head home.

Had Pawlett then checked his run the visitors would have had two, but when he met Jonny Hayes's cross with a diving header he was fractionally offside.

However, he certainly made amends for that within seven minutes of the restart, sending a similar diving header from a Logan cross into the net.

It was a measure of the quality of Aberdeen's performance that had so few anxious moments before confirming a truly impressive result with a third.

Logan found David Goodwillie in the penalty area and he cleverly picked out the unmarked McLean, who completed a comprehensive win for Aberdeen.

Andrew Considine (left) celebrates opening the scoring for Aberdeen against Rijeka

Shay Logan (left) and Peter Pawlett celebrate after combining for Aberdeen's second goal

Kenny McLean's left foot shot made it 3-0 to Aberdeen

Graeme Shinnie salutes the travelling support