Aberdeen may have been seething at yet another VAR controversy after their Europa Conference League loss to PAOK, but Dante Polvara, the scorer of their second goal, believes they had what would have been an impressive win in their own grasp before throwing it away.
Barry Robson’s side were two goals up against the Greeks with 17 minutes left with the American midfielder Polvara adding to Bojan Miovski’s opening strike. But they collapsed and lost three goals — two of which were down to defensive slips and the other a last minute VAR intervention that handed PAOK a penalty — to slump to defeat.
Robson was outraged that the system did not intervene when his side were 2-1 up and Jack MacKenzie looked to have been clearly fouled in the box, but nothing was given either on the pitch by the referee or by the video referees in their operating room.
Polvara says Aberdeen are kicking themselves regardless of the controversy. He said: “It’s painful. I don’t really know how to say anything else, it hurts. I haven’t seen it yet in real time. Sometimes you get them sometimes you don’t. It’s not like some people can point towards that’s why we should have got whatever result.
“At the end of the day we were still in control. I didn’t know they didn’t go to VAR though. That’s an interesting one then. VAR is a new thing and it is clearly still not perfect. It has a bit to go and was maybe not on our side on the night which is unfortunate to hear. But the game was in our hands.
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“I haven’t had this sort of feeling in a football game many times in my life. It hurts because it did feel like it was going to be a special night. We have played everyone now and PAOK look strong and are in a great position now.”
Aberdeen must now pick themselves up for a tricky game tomorrow at Rugby Park against their former manager Derek McInnes’s Kilmarnock team. “That’s what we have to focus on now,” Polvara said. “If we want to be in European competition next season, the most likely scenario is we have to finish top three or top four. Whatever position it is to be able to qualify again for Europe.
“It is what we all want to be involved in. Kilmarnock will be tough and will be excited to play against us probably knowing what happened on Thursday and how much we put in so we have to be ready.”
