It was the turn of Barry Robson and Dante Polvara to face the press ahead of tomorrow night’s UEFA Conference League group game with PAOK.
To kick things off, the manager stressed that the group table doesn’t really reflect the quality of Aberdeen’s football in the European games.
“We’ve performed really well in Europe and so far, we haven’t got the results we’ve deserved. The most important thing is we keep going because every game is important to us. We’re in the fight here, we’ve come here to try and win the game.
“We know how difficult that’s going to be because of the real quality that they’ve got, but we want to win every game that we play in. That’s what’s expected at this football club and we have a duty to try and live up to that.
“We believe that if we get everything right and all do our jobs right, we’ve got a chance in the game. We were excellent for about 75 minutes and then individual errors which were frustrating cost us the game.
“At the same time, PAOK have real quality, they brought real quality players on the pitch off the bench as well. I knew that at 2-0, the game is never done against a team as good as they are. At this level, you have to stay switched on and cut out any mistakes.
“But our players have been really brave, they’ve given our fans a lot to shout about in Europe, the fans have been behind us all the way, there’s another 800 coming tomorrow, they turn out in ridiculous numbers, and we’re going to need them.
“In terms of the squad, we’re generally in a good place ahead of the game, but we’ve got one or two players with knocks that we are looking at and we’ll be taking that into account and making a decision on them tomorrow. We know we’ve got lots of big games over the next couple of months and we have to manage the players as best we can.”
Asked about the ticket allocation for the Viaplay Cup final against Rangers next month, Robson echoed the disappointment in the Club’s statement issued earlier today.
“The Club was looking to get as many tickets as they can for the game, and rightly so. We want as many fans there as we can get. It’s difficult to hear that they didn’t split the allocation.”
Dante Polvara has certainly taken to life in the Conference League, both his Aberdeen goals so far coming in this competition.
“I’d like to score in every game if possible, but to score my first goal at Pittodrie against a great club like PAOK and in this competition was really exciting. Hopefully I can score another tomorrow.
“We can take some confidence from the fact that we were 2-0 up against PAOK, we know we can score goals against them, but we recognise how dangerous they are too. Playing away from home it will probably slightly change how the game goes and whether that works in our favour or not, we’ll have to see how it goes.”
Echoing the manager, Dante also believes his team have produced better performances than the results have shown so far.
“I think we’re unlucky not to have more points on the board from these first three games. We’ve managed to produce some good performances against big teams so far this season and we have a lot of quality in our changing room. When we are at our best, we can be a threat to a lot of teams.
“We are still learning because it is a slightly different game in Europe. The games that we’ve played, the opposition likes to have a lot of possession, so we have to be more precise when we have the ball and we have to take care of it more, be more accurate when we are counter-attacking.
“But all the boys are looking forward being a part of the game. Tomorrow will be different for sure, quite hostile, but I’m sure it’s going to be an exciting atmosphere, really loud, and that’s what you play football for. It’s a great thing to be a part of. There are two passionate teams, two passionate supporter groups, and I wouldn’t expect that to be any different when there’s so much on the line in Europe. It’s an emotional game, that’s how it should be.”
