Football matches can be decided in the most fleeting of moments. Not always on the field of play.
Whoever in Hacken’s transfers department made the call to delay Ibrahim Sadiq’s sale to Alkmaar deserves a sizable bonus.
Actuarially speaking, it was a wise gamble – the added riches of qualification made it well worth running the minimal risk of the player suffering a deal-breaking injury – but the extent to which it paid off was surely beyond the Swedes’ wildest dreams.
Sadiq’s second goal, cool though the finish, owed much to sleepy Aberdeen defending, but his first was truly outstanding.
However devastating a blow it dealt to their own team, those Beach End ticket holders in a direct line behind the shot could testify that this was, objectively, a thing of beauty – among the best seen at Pittodrie in some time.
Slobodan Rubezic may have said the same about the glorious jinking run which precipitated the killer third, had he seen much of it. The sheepish Serb’s initial reprieve never appeared likely to hold, the only surprise being that it was not the man on a hat-trick waiting on the spot for the inevitable VAR intervention.
All the best to Sadiq in the Eredivisie. On this evidence, he will be a roaring success.
Good luck, too, to Hacken in the Europa League – without their outstanding forward, one fears they might need it.
Could Conference League drop be blessing in disguise for Aberdeen?
And with that thought, let’s not forget that the full measure of this result may not become clear until later in the year. Many are the examples of clubs prospering in tournaments they have parachuted down into; with theoretically less imposing opponents waiting in the Conference League than the stellar cast facing Häcken, the losers of this tie may yet have the more enjoyable group stage.
Just please, not AZ.
Conversation