Aberdeen move to Europa League Conference after losing to BK Hacken

Aberdeen will take their place in the Europa League Conference group stage after losing 3-1 at home to Swedish champions BK Hacken in the Europa League play-offs.

As in the first leg, Hacken took a two-goal lead thanks to a first-half brace from Ibrahim Sadiq, who is expected to join AZ Alkmaar before the transfer deadline.

The Dons were considering another comeback after Bojan Miovski's VAR-assisted penalty saw them halve the deficit.

However, another VAR penalty decision allowed Amor Layouni to seal a 5-3 aggregate victory and his side's place in the Europa League.

The Dons have shown three changes since the first leg, with Jamie McGrath, James McGarry and Richard Jensen all making their first Aberdeen starts. The Swedes were without Johan Hammar, sent off at the end of the first leg, but were otherwise unchanged from the 2-2 draw in the first leg.

Similar to the first leg, the match started wide open, with both teams looking dangerous up front but vulnerable at the back.

Hacken was comfortable in possession and his opening goal in the 14th minute was an illustration of that as they patiently worked the ball past the Aberdeen defense before Sadiq worked into space to hit a shot unstoppable just inside the post at 22 yards.

Aberdeen's more direct run saw Luis 'Duk' Lopes sent one-on-one with Peter Abrahamsson to hit the goalkeeper directly, who ran off his line to reduce the angle.

A Leighton Clarkson corner just after the half-hour found Jensen, whose shot hit NIcky Devlin at the far post, but the first leg scorer could only get around the far post.

Miovski thought he had equalized when he met another cross from Clarkson, this time at the near post, but Abrahamsson this time sent the ball over the post to prevent the North Macedonian.

Aberdeen's profligacy would return in the 41st minute when Sadiq tossed the ball over the diver Roos as he rushed Mikkel Rygaard's sweet pass through the home defence.

The visitors started the second half looking to kill the game, with Franklin Tebo heading in from a corner before Srdan Hrstic somehow managed to get over the bar while the goal was gaping just four meters in front of him.

Aberdeen pulled a goal back almost immediately as Duk fell to Tebo's challenge. Referee Daniel Siebert initially indicated a dive, but a VAR review saw him change his mind and award a kick.

Miovski stepped in and quietly headed home from the penalty spot in the 56th minute.

The same man could have leveled things five minutes later by rushing Jensen's ball over the top before curling terribly 18 yards out with just the keeper to beat.

Sadiq was denied a hat-trick by the post but it was the Ghanaian who was knocked down by Slobodan Rubezic from the penalty spot that allowed Layouni to find the bottom corner in the 81st minute, the only surprise being that it needed a goal. exam to award what has always seemed like a stone wall penalty.

The Dons pushed hard to score a goal to establish a stand finish, but ran out of time.