Dimitar Mitov was looking to accentuate the positive after a brave Aberdeen display against Strasbourg ultimately ended in defeat at Pittodrie.
“I’m really proud of the boys because we’re growing so much as a team. We’re showing resilience, we’re much harder to beat than before and that’s something you need. Everyone’s putting in a shift and that’s a good sign that the team is improving.
“You’ve got to be positive, you can’t concentrate on the negative, because it’s going to mess with your head. It doesn’t matter the situation, you always need to find the positives. We’ve been doing that, we have a very positive squad, people that want to learn, people that want to play better, they want to improve, and in football that’s such an important skill to have. It’s shown with the performance we’ve had lately, probably in the last five, six weeks. I think we’ve been playing really well so I’m sure if we keep doing that, it’s going to be a very successful season for us.
“We are really disappointed tonight, because I felt like we had a chance, especially in the first half, to go ahead. It’s disappointing but at the same time it’s really positive as well because if we manage to create the chances we create against teams like that, it’s showing that we’re going in the right direction and we’re working in the right way.
“This European campaign has been an amazing experience, especially for me, playing for the first time in Europe and learning a lot about ourselves because you learn more about you and as a team when you lose games, not when you win.
“For us to fix up the mistakes we did earlier in the season after heavy defeats in Europe, that shows signs of growing, that shows you that the boys are learning and improving. We also need to remember we’re playing against really, really good teams and I think sometimes people don’t realise how good these teams are in Europe. That was shown by the opposition we played this season.
“We could have done better in some areas, of course, but in 90 minutes of a game you cannot be perfect, nobody is perfect. They managed to take their chance, we didn’t, but that’s football. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Mitov produced a series of fine saves in the second half, including another penalty save, but he was more interested in looking at the bigger picture than talking about those.
“That’s my job. When the team needs me, I need to be there for the team because they do so much off the ball, so much running and sometimes we will give up chances and you need your goalkeeper to pull you out. I’m happy I managed to do that, to give them a chance to score an equaliser and potentially win the game, but it wasn’t meant to be today.
“Now we need to focus on Sunday, this game is gone. At Pittodrie against Kilmarnock, it’s going to be a game we need to be at our absolute best to be victorious.”
