Atletico Madrid 2 Aberdeen 0 Dons Star's Agony After 'Schoolboy Error' Puts Them On Road To Defeat
MICHAEL HART admitted he had made a "schoolboy error" as Aberdeen stumbled to a 2-0 defeat against a star-studded Atletico Madrid side last night.
The Dons defender pulled down teenage scoring sensation Sergio Aguero on the stroke of half-time to hand the Spaniards the opening goal from the penalty spot.
Simao's second-half free-kick after 62 minutes cannoned off luckless keeper Jamie Langfield to add to the Scots side's woes and condemn them to a second UEFA Cup Group B defeat and leave them rooted to the bottom of the section.
The Dons' chances of qualification for the knockout stages now rests on Atletico Madrid beating FC Copenhagen next week and Panathinaikos killing off Lokomotiv's hopes on the same night. That would allow the Dons would go through if they beat the Danish side at Pittodrie on December 20.
Hart said: "It was a frustrating night, particularly for me as I gave the penalty away and it was a schoolboy error from me. I thought Aguero was going to shoot and I just dived in when I should have stayed on my feet.
"The second goal was never a free-kick. That killed us as you don't come back from two down against a team like Atletico in Spain. If we had got to half-time at 0-0 then we would have been buzzing and had a fighting chance.
"I hold my hands up. I told the lads in the dressing room it was stupid of me and I will learn from that mistake.
"All in all despite our recent performances that is one of our better ones and it is disappointing that if we had shown more confidence on the ball we might have achieved something.
"At the end of the day we know we have to beat Copenhagen at Pittodrie and hopefully if results go our way we can get through to the next stage.
"If you make a mistake against a team of this calibre then you get punished. This is a steep learning curve for us.
"We put in a decent performance but the timing of the goal was a real sucker punch for us.
"I thought we handled their four attacking players very well but they are real quality and showed that by finishing the game off - that is what top European sides do."
