Burnley boss Dyche delighted to give fans chance to use their passports!

Clarets boss Sean Dyche was delighted to get a Europa League victory on his CV - and give Burnley fans the chance to finally use their passports!
Sean DycheSean Dyche
Sean Dyche

Chris Wood put Burnley ahead in their second qualifying round second leg against Aberdeen at Turf Moor, but Lewis Ferguson levelled with a superb overhead kick.

Goals from Jack Cork and an Ashley Barnes penalty sent the Clarets through in extra time, and Burnley will now travel to Turkey to face Istanbul BaÅŸakÅŸehir, with the first leg away on Thursday.

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Dyche has worked these games into his pre-season programme, and joked when asked whether getting 120 minutes into his players’ legs was part of the plan: “Of course, definitely, eventually the plan was dealt with the right way, but credit to Aberdeen, there were a lot of questions about this, that and the other, but I thought they were excellent in both games.

Sean DycheSean Dyche
Sean Dyche

“They certainly came out to try and make a game of it, which is great, and you still need that bit of luck - there were a couple of interesting decisions, but we did finally get a penalty after almost a calendar year, so that was good.

“But other decisions certainly didn’t favour us, and, equally, their keeper was outstanding.

“We kept probing and looking to break them down, and we did on a few occasions, then their keeper pulled out some marvellous saves,

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“Overall it was a tricky tie, and I think our fans literally want to go into Europe, so we’ve achieved that for them now, they can actually say it’s a European tour now!

“Little details within in, its on my CV, a win in Europe, whatever way you look a it - Dwight McNeil, fantastic, a young man coming into a game like this.

“A lot of good signs but a lot of work to be done.”

However, the win brought more injury headaches: “Woody’s hurt his hip flexor unfortunately, I don’t think it’s drastic, but it was enough to come off, which is never a good sign.

“We were a bit more careful with Azza (Aaron Lennon), who got a bit of cramp, and had a tight hamstring, Wardy as well, just being careful, but Chas (Taylor) did well and put a fantastic ball in for the goal.

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“That’s the challenge of this competition, its highly competitive as we’ve seen, and are the players ready for it? Are their bodies ready for it? We hope they are, a lot are, but you can’t really tell truly because it’s come early, these are different to friendlies.

“There are different emotional responses, so there’s a higher level of stress on the body, and usually you build into that. It’s just come a bit quick.”

The game in Istanbul will come three days before Burnley open their Premier League campaign at Southampton, but Dyche isn’t concerned: “It’s not a problem just travelling, the rest of it is just games. If I was a footballer, I’d be absolutely buzzing. I don’t think there’ll be too many not wanting to play, it’s just the travelling.”