PAOK 2 Aberdeen 2: Duk and McGrath have Dons dreaming of miracle but battling point not enough as European dream ends

THE same entertainment, bad blood and VAR drama as at Pittodrie. 

But last night Aberdeen were left kissing goodbye to Europe.

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Duk swept the Dons into an early lead[/caption]

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Jamie McGrath scored a stunning free-kick but it wasn’t enough[/caption]

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PAOK star Taison delivered a knock-out blow to another Scottish side[/caption]

Barry Robson’s side deserve massive credit for holding Group G leaders PAOK to a draw – especially as they came back from 2-1 down to do it. 

Sadly, Eintracht Frankfurt’s win over HJK Helsinki means the Dons can’t finish in the qualifying places now. 

Duk’s 14th-minute opener had them dreaming of a miracle, but the Greeks hit them twice through Taison and Mbwana Samatta before Jamie McGrath’s brilliant free-kick equaliser. 

Albanian ref Juxhin Xhaja then needed his video assistants to overturn a bonkers penalty awarded to PAOK for Konstantinos Koulerakis’ blatant dive. 

At Pittodrie, Razvan Lucescu wasn’t happy with Nicky Devlin’s air kiss gloating at 2-0. 

And the home fans were even less impressed by the Aberdeen bench’s wild celebrations, with some even climbing the fences to berate their subs.

Aberdeen’s away support hailed their team for the effort they put into this at the end – and rightly so. 

Robson had a fitness call to make over star man Bojan Miovski after he picked up a knock in last weekend’s Viaplay Cup semi-final win over Hibs.

And in the end he opted to start with the North Macedonian on the bench, instead preferring Duk to lead the line. 

The Dons set up as expected, planning to be as rigid as possible in their formation and spring forward with balls in behind when they got the chance. 

It was a tactic which bore fruit at Pittodrie with their two goals but relies heavily on cutting out mistakes like Slobodan Rubezic’s early mistimed header which gifted possession to PAOK 25 yards from goal. 

On this occasion his fellow defenders were able to get back and crowd out Kiril Despodov before he could do any damage. 

But it was a quick reminder to Robson’s men that, just like last month, any slackness at all will be immediately pounced on. 

PAOK had been in total control of the ball, with Aberdeen’s only forays into their final third coming from long punts. 

But that changed in remarkable fashion on 14 minutes as they sliced the home defence wide open with a superb, slick move. 

Ryan Duncan – in for Leighton Clarkson– was the architect of it, spotting space to flick a pass in behind PAOK’s back line for Devlin to chase. 

The PAOK players thought he was offside so hesitated slightly, but the damage was already in the process of being done as he slipped a cutback to Duk, for him to spin and fire past Dominik Kotarski. 

It was brilliant stuff from the Dons, who showed the quality and clinical finishing you need to make an impact at this level.

But the lead only lasted nine minutes as PAOK came back with a deadly response. 

Rubezic charged out to win a challenge with Taison, but somehow came off second best to the Brazilian in a 50-50, leaving the Greeks with a great chance to overload the defence. 

He strode forward before spreading it wide to Despodov on the right and with the Dons’ defence still backtracking, he cut back for Taison to slam a shot past Roos from 12 yards. 

And the big Serbian’s night almost got even worse just four minutes later when stretching for Baba Rahman’s cross from the left and sent it against his own post. 

Aberdeen were not happy with VAR’s inaction in the Pittodrie game and could have had a case for PAOK skipper Vierinha being under the microscope for a late challenge on McGrath which caught him high on the ankle. 

Xhaja was quick with the booking but nothing further came from it. 

PAOK went close to a second three minutes before the break when Rahman got through to cross from Despodov’s lovely flick, but McGrath got enough of a block on striker Brandon’s shot to send it off the woodwork. 

Aberdeen survived a VAR check on the hour when Gartenmann stood on the foot of Ioannis Konstantelias’ foot inside the box. 

It would have been the softest penalty award yet – well, until later on – but still took a couple of minutes for them to direct the ref to play on. 

But PAOK had the ball in the net with 23 minutes to play, as sub Samatta did what he was brought on to do. 

Aberdeen didn’t defend a deep cross to the back post for William Troost-Ekong, allowing him to nod it back over for the Tanzanian to overpower Devlin and glance it into the bottom corner. 

Then, amazingly, the Dons levelled with a stunning goal from McGrath. 

Awarded a free-kick for Duk being bundled over 30 yards from goal, it didn’t seem there would be too much danger. 

But the Irishman had other ideas, whipping in a fantastic ball which had keeper Kotarski flailing. 

The Dons bench and subs erupted, with defender Angus MacDonald going wild goading the home support – some of whom responded by throwing plastic bottles before officials told him to calm down. 

Aberdeen then thought they’d conceded an incredible penalty as Koulierakis went down after getting in behind McGrath. 

But despite the ref pointing to the spot, VAR eventually did its job by alerting him to the fact the Aberdeen man was a YARD away from making contact. 

Amazingly, the blatant dive didn’t get him a booking.  

Aberdeen are out, but this was a result they can’t be down about. 

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