THE BOJAN WITH A PLAN

Strike ace rescues draw but perfect Finnish is beyond Dons

- SCOTT BURNS

BOJAN MIOVSKI rescued a point but a failure to produce a Finn-ishing touch cost Aberdeen what could have been a vital Europa Conference League win.

The Dons dominated for long spells but were left stunned when Bojan Radulovic put HJK into a shock lead.

Barry Robson's side battled back to level through Miovski.

It saw Aberdeen get off the mark in Group G but it was a match they should have won. Their failure to capitalise on their long periods of superiority came back to haunt them.

They showed resilience but it was two points dropped, though the Reds did extend their eaten run to four games.

Aberdeen will now hope to try and spring a surprise of their own when shock group leaders PAOK visit the Granite City next.

The Greek side stunned Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 to go on to maximum points.

Aberdeen have played Finnish opposition once before when they beat RoPS, 4-2 on aggregate under Derek McInnes, back in 2018. Since then, they have gone from Lapland to Dreamland after making the group stages for the first time in 16 years.

This was the first group game in the city since Jimmy Calderwood's side beat Copenhagen 4-0 to seal their place in the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup, where they bowed out to Bayern Munich.