EBBE SKOVDAHL has both personal and professional reasons for hoping Aberdeen can win on Thursday night to progress from the Uefa Cup group stages. Not only does the recently-retired 62-year-old feel a genuine warmth and fondness for the Pittodrie club due to his four years there around the turn of the millennium, he also sits on an advisory committee plotting to restore his beloved Brondby to their former glory as the pre-eminent force in Danish football. That means doing something about FC Copenhagen.

Brondby won four Danish championships and three Danish Cups with Skovdahl at the helm during the 1990s but currently find themselves mired in mid-table while their fiscally-superior city rivals have the run of the Danish league.

"I am part of a group at Brondby who try to see what the right things are to do to make things better," Skovdahl said last night. "The chairman is involved, I am there, and there are a lot of other people who have been there for a lot of years, and we talk about a lot of things. Maybe in two years time it will be the other way around again, but Brondby have problems at the moment while FC Copenhagen are incredibly well organised. They have a structure in their team where they can put pressure on the opposition if they need to, but they also have this skill where they can go back a little, wait for the opposition to come to them and they are very, very dangerous on the counter attacks."

Skovdahl's Pittodrie period wasn't as bounteous as his time at Brondby, even if the club's fans always displayed a patience towards the Dane which isn't always extended to the inhabitants of the manager's office. An admittedly "weird" first season defined the contradictions of his reign - appearances in both domestic cup finals were undermined by a finishing rock-bottom of the SPL, and only being saved from relegation due to the fact that First Division champions Falkirk were still stuck at Brockville - while his two trips into Uefa Cup action ended with an ignominious failure against Bohemians then a more creditable one against Hertha Berlin.

Despite some inventive signings such as the late Hicham Zerouali, the Dane eventually resigned after becoming disenfranchised by the lack of resources being pushed in his direction by the board. Not that he will have any divided loyalties on Thursday evening.

"I am not bitter at all," Skovdahl said. "I had four tremendous years at Aberdeen, and I am always thinking about it and looking back with great pleasure, so I am delighted that they are doing very well now. If the match was to be played in Copenhagen then Copenhagen would definitely have been my favourites. But because it is in Aberdeen, it is another story, because Aberdeen have done very well for the last couple of years so they must have a lot of confidence.

"I am not really surprised by their recent success, because I have seen that Jimmy Calderwood has signed a lot of players that he had at Dunfermline Barry Nicholson and Derek Young, and still kept the best players that I had when I was at Aberdeen, like Chris Clark and Darren Mackie. I will be able to watch the match and you can bet on the fact that I will be cheering on Aberdeen."

Skovdahl officially retired two years ago, choosing to spurn an offer from AIK Solna of Stockholm to end his career with a fruitless attempt to save lowly BK Frem from relegation, and claims that he "doesn't really miss" day-to-day involvement in the game. Not that he doesn't keep up with developments at his former club, nor have some invaluable scouting tips to pass on to Calderwood.

"There are a couple of Copenhagen players who need to be kept quiet, especially Jesper Gronkjaer who is so quick and clever," Skovdahl said. "He usually plays on the left flank, but he can play both sides, and the Swedish striker Markus Allback scores all the goals. Not only is Canadian international Atiba Hutchison a quality player, but he works so hard from box to box, he is skilful and quick and has a good eye for finding his team-mates with passes up front."

At least Aberdeen are unlikely to have a Laudrup to contend with as young Mads Laudrup, son of former Danish legend Michael, is still perceived mainly as one for the future.

Aberdeen may regard themselves as slightly fortunate still to be in the hunt for qualification going into the last day, but those who feared that the club would find themselves embarrassed in such a difficult group are the ones with the red faces. Aside from a few lapses in concentration, young players have largely stepped up to minimise any gulf in class, and none more so than Zander Diamond, who appears to have grown in responsibility in the wake of Russell Anderson's departure for Sunderland. Skovdahl is delighted for a player who he believed was a potential international player from the first moment he moved him in to train with the first team for the first time as a teenager.

"Zander was at the club when I was there, but he was too young at that time," Skovdahl said. "He was training with us all the time for about one and a half years, but we have to remember we had both Russell Anderson and at the beginning it was Derek White, then afterwards we had Philip McGuire. But at the time when I was there I could see that he Diamond might become an international player because on the deck he was very good, maybe not as strong in the air as Russell Anderson, but they complemented each other. I saw that Russell has gone to Sunderland, and I am delighted for him, although it is always difficult when you are down there."

Skovdahl is not the only Scottish football old boy who has a vested interest in Thursday night's game. One of the other standouts for the league-leading Danes, after all, this season has been Libor Sionko, the Czech winger who failed so spectacularly to make an impact under Paul Le Guen at Rangers. "He has done very well for Copenhagen, even though I know he was a failure at Rangers," Skovdahl said.

Sionko or not, Aberdeen know that only a victory over the Danes can save their bacon.