Stefan Gartenmann puts Rangers and Hearts on notice as Aberdeen will battle ANYONE for Viaplay Cup glory

Stefan Gartenmann reckons tenacious 10-man Aberdeen proved that they are a “proper team”.

The Pittodrie side defended like their lives depended on it after Jack MacKenzie was sent off, to book their spot in the
Viaplay Cup final. And the Danish defender – whose only Dons goal to date came at Ibrox – insists he’d happily take Rangers, and the chance to make it two from two against the Dons’ fiercest rivals, in the final.

Gartenmann was part of a rock solid defence alongside Richard Jensen and Slobodan Rubezic that put up the shutters against a Hibs side that threw everything at them. Nicky Devlin also produced a wonder block to deny Dylan Vente in a heroic rearguard action. Even the 75th minute sending off of MacKenzie for seeing red and pushing Lewis Miller, failed to knock them. And after Bojan Miovski broke free on 78 minutes to slot beyond David Marshall, Gartenmann reckons there was only going to be one winner.

He said: “When we went one man down, we knew it was going to be tough, but I think the last 20 or 30 minutes showed that this is a proper team. Not only with good players, but with the willpower.

“Willpower was the reason we were able to pull through. Even with 10 men, we kept them mostly away from big chances. I know it sounds stupid, but we felt like we were in control.

“We have seen in some of the games we have a good team. We played even games with Eintracht and PAOK in Europe and we won at Ibrox, so you know we have quality players. We haven’t had this kind of game, though, where we had to pull everything out of everybody.

"We played just a few days ago and we have had a really tough programme. This is just a hardworking win that means a lot extra.

“Playing nice and beautiful is great, but this is