PAOK boss Razvan Lucescu has told Aberdeen that his team were “totally superior” and deserved to win at Pittodrie while denying any VAR controversy.
On a night of high Europa Conference League drama at Pittodrie, Barry Robson’s side looked to have ignited their group stage campaign as they went 2-0 up in the second half through goals from Bojan Miovski and Dante Polvara before the hour mark.
But a stunning comeback from the Greeks left the Dons heartbroken, not to mention furious at the award of a 96th minute penalty. Kiril Despodov and Vieirinha had wiped out the advantage with six minutes to go before VAR alerted the ref to Slobodan Rubezic’s challenge on Magomed Ozdoev. He pointed to the spot and Stefan Schwab won it. The hosts were already angry enough at VAR’s failure to intervene on a penalty shout of their own at 2-1 after Jack MacKenzie went down in the area.
But Romanian Lucescu had little sympathy for the Premiership outfit. He said: “Sorry to tell you, but we won because we deserved to win this game. We played fair first half, controlling it totally and creating big opportunities.
“We were dominating the game without letting the others have any possibilities. We had ten minutes of craziness in the second half and it was 2-0.
“It was the craziness that cost us. But at the same time, we didn’t give up and we came back in the fight with huge belief that we could and also get the result.
‘Apart from the goal that we scored, we had two other opportunities. Meanwhile, the others in this situation were expecting one mistake from us.
“If VAR didn’t call them, it was not a penalty. If they called us and it was decided that ours was a penalty, it's a penalty.
“If you want to enter into this kind of talk, no way. If
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