Aberdeen out of Conference League despite draw with PAOK in Greece

Aberdeen’s slim hopes of reaching the Conference League knockout stages have come to an end despite an impressive draw with PAOK in Greece.

Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes gave them a shock lead in the first-half and Jamie McGrath were on target from a free kick to make it 2-2 in the second half at the Stadio Toumbas in Thessaloniki.

Barry Robson’s side are the first to take any points from PAOK, but it wasn’t enough to get the win they needed to keep them in with a chance of getting through the groups.

They now have two points from four games and sit seven behind Eintracht Frankfurt in Group G with two games remaining.

PAOK, who went into the game with a 100% record in the competition, remain top of the section with three wins and a draw so far.

The Dons are still looking for their first win of the campaign despite four good performances and several near misses throughout the campaign.

They lead PAOK 2-0 with just over 15 minutes remaining a fortnight ago before losing three late goals including an injury time penalty to lose the game.

And they took the lead again on Thursday night when Duk opened the scoring after 14 minutes.

The Portuguese star, who was named in the starting line-up ahead of in-form forward Bojan Miovski, met a cross from Devlin before slotting it past the keeper to make it 1-0.

But, just like at Pittodrie, PAOK fought back and grabbed an equaliser through Taison ten minutes later.

It was 1-1 at half-time with the home side having the best of the first 45 but both sides creating chances.

Roos was called into action at the start of the second half to deny Konstantelias.

Barry Robson made his first two changes on the hour mark when he brought on Polvara and Hayes for Duncan and Shinnie.

PAOK took the lead for the first time with just over 20 minutes to go when Samatta made it 2-1 on the 67th minute.

But Aberdeen refused to give it up and got themselves level just a few minutes later when McGrath made it 2-2 with an impressive strike from a free-kick on the 70 minute mark.

They now travel to HJK for their next Conference League match before finishing their European campaign against Frankfurt in Pittodrie.