AEK Athens v Aberdeen talking points as Dons suffer record European defeat on brutal Greek night
The Dons' 6-0 hiding at the hands of AEK was a bigger losing margin than, among earlier four-goal Euro defeats, their 5-1 Pittodrie battering against Sigma Olomouc in 2009
Aberdeen suffered a record European doing in the Conference League by losing 6-0 at AEK Athens on a brutal night in Greece.
AEK, who spent nine million euros on signings in the summer, undoubtedly have bigger clout than the Reds, and were favourites over the visitors to get their league phase campaign up and running in the second round of fixtures.
There was some understandable hope, though, Jimmy Thelin’s Dons, having gone toe-to-toe with Shakhtar Donestsk in defeat at Pittodrie before recording back-to-back Premiership wins, could stretch their resurgence to a famous result at the OPAP Arena.
But error-strewn Aberdeen were torn to shreds by the Greek Super League title-hopefuls – especially in a hide-your-eyes first half which could have reasonably finished 8-0 (yes, EIGHT).
Escaping 3-0 down at the interval, the Dons were still on course for a hiding to even beat the 5-1 defeat in Germany by Bayern Munich under Jimmy Calderwood and the 5-1 Pittodrie battering to Czechs Sigma Olomouc under Mark McGhee in 2009.
And, so it proved, with three more AEK goals after the break writing Thelin’s Reds into club notoriety.
Here are talking points from a night which was a Greek tragedy, bordering on a tragi-comedy, for Aberdeen.
Marko Lazetic trusted for second Conference League start
Striker Marko Lazetic in and Kevin Nisbet out was one of two changes made by Jimmy Thelin to his starting line-up for the game against AEK.
It is unclear to what degree Thelin was convinced by summer signing Lazetic’s muscular, disruptive showing – and assist for Nicky Devlin – in the 3-2 near-fightback against Ukrainian big-hitters Shakhtar three Thursdays ago.
Or was it was the Serbian’s duck-busting solo heroics to secure the weekend’s 1-0 win in Paisley? Anyway it was consecutive Conference League starts for the frontman.
Winger Topi Keskinen also started over Gavin Molloy at left wing-back.
AEK could’ve gone Okto in first half
Home boss Marko Nikolic, another Serbian inside the OPAP Arena, left his compatriot (and actually Lazetic’s recent AC Milan club-mate) Luka Jovic on his bench against Aberdeen.
Jovic, who cost giants Real Madrid £52million in 2019, was joined among the substitutes by former Liverpool midfielder Marko Grujic.
Despite some firepower being held in reserve by AEK, it was a first half in Athens where, if Aberdeen weren’t serving as architects of their own downfall – either through calamity or overcommitting forward – they were being played round and through like they weren’t there.
On 11 minutes, Aboubakary Koita gave AEK the lead, with an excellent pinpoint left-foot shot from outside the area beating Dimitar Mitov and nestling in the bottom right corner.
It was an excellent finish, but it was so easy for Koita to step by Dons skipper Graeme Shinnie before shooting.
When the game restarted and home centre-half Filipe Relvas hit the woodwork from a free-kick delivery, the signs were ominous.
On 18 minutes it was 2-0, and it was Koita again. A
promising Aberdeen attack broke down when Karlsson’s attempt to slip in Keskinen inside the box was cut out, leaving acres of space down the Dons’ left.
The culmination of a sweeping counter came when Lazaros Rota, just inside the visitors’ box, teed up his team-mate on the left angle, six-yards out, to again finish low to Mitov’s right – albeit this time with his right foot.
When Nicky Devlin was poleaxed at an Aberdeen corner on 24 minutes, the delay for the defender to receive treatment looked like a chance for the Reds to steady themselves.
However, with the game back under way, they conceded again.
Mitov played a misguided short pass to Jack Milne, who was surrounded by two AEK players on the edge of the area. The 22-year-old made a cringe-inducing attempt to Cruyff turn out of trouble, lost the ball, and the home side’s Niclas Eliasson netted beyond the goalie – despite Devlin’s desperate attempt to execute a heroic sliding block close to the line.
Thelin tweaked things, but it was only natural to think ‘how much is this going to be?!’ as AEK worked chance after chance, including a close-range Frantzdy Pierrot header which was straight at Mitov and Petros Mantalos free-kick from deep which diving Domagoj Vida headed off the right post.
Even in an excruciating five minutes of added-on time, Pierrot and Eliasson missed sitters – the second of these desperately turned wide by half-hour-mark sub for Keskinen, Alfie Dorrington.
It’s history for Aberdeen, and not in a good way
There was a slightly subdued, more hesitant AEK start to the second period – exactly what Aberdeen would’ve been hoping for.
But they did make it 4-0 on 55 minutes. Mr Unlucky in the goalscoring stakes, Pierrot, got in behind and fired low across goal, but his shot ricocheted back off the right upright. Razvan Marin, following in but almost beyond the ball, finished from a yard out with an acrobatic overhead kick.
A flurry of substitutions in the game, mercifully, stopped the bleeding again for Aberdeen, and you thought: ‘Maybe they can keep it to this…’
Around the 70-minute mark, the Dons – getting forward for the first time in a LONG time – did manage their first couple of shots on target.
Lazetic forced a save from Thomas Strakosha, and then another replacement, Kusini Yengi, flicked a header towards the keeper.
But there was the statistically-significant AEK goal to come, when replacement Jovic latched on to an exquisite through ball and fired high into the net.
Another home sub Derek Kutesa then raced through to add insult to injury.
And – even after all of those goals – there could have been more.
Let-down for hopeful Aberdeen fans
Many of the 1,500-plus Aberdeen fans were in the OPAP Arena by 6.30pm after (a proportion) were shuttled on buses from Athens’ old Olympic stadium.
They have travelled to Greece in typically sensational numbers this week, with at least 2,000 probably actually flying across, judging by the amount of Dons tops out and about.
Unfortunately for them, they didn’t get to see a dream result against AEK, while there was also a bit of an early away end skirmish with local riot police to further sour the mood.
But they were still singing at full-time. They were still singing.
TEAMS
AEK Athens (4-4-1-1): Strakosha; Penrice, Relvas, Vida, Rota; Koita, Mantalos, Pineda, Eliasson; Marin; Pierrot.
Subs: Kutesa (for Koita 62), Ljubicic (for Marin 68), Jovic (for Pierrot 68), Gacinovic (for Rota 76), Grujic (for Mantalos 76).
Subs not used: Angelopoulos, Brignoli, Moukoudi, Pilios, Gruijic, Kosidis, Chrysopoulos.
Aberdeen (3-4-3): Mitov; Milne, Knoester, Devlin; Jensen, Armstrong, Shinnie, Keskinen; Aouchiche, Lazetic, Karlsson.
Subs: Dorrington (for Keskinen 31), Polvara (for Shinnie 46), Palaversa (for Aouchiche 46), Clarkson (for Armstrong 62), Yengi (for Karlsson 71).
Subs not used: Suman, Vitols, Milanovic, Nisbet, Molloy, Lobban.
Referee: Jasper Vergoote.
[Source: Press and Journal]
