Aberdeen manager Barry Robson believes the key decisions were missed by the officials as his side had to settle for a point in a 1-1 draw with HJK Helsinki at Pittodrie in the Conference League.
Dons striker Duk was left bloodied by an elbow from Helsinki midfielder Georgios Kanellopoulos but a foul was given against the Aberdeen player.
VAR did not ask official Daniel Stefanski to review the incident, which happened in the first half when the game was goalless.
Robson tried to choose his words carefully but his unhappiness with the officiating was clear.
He said: “I was massively surprised it wasn’t looked at.
“I need to be careful what I comment on but we all know what we saw tonight.
“The level of player and level of game, it has to be officiated at the right standard and I don’t think the standard was right.
“A lot of things on the pitch were not right, for me.
“We all saw it, the decisions being made. It wasn’t the standard required at this level.”
Frustrated at failure to take all three points
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Bojan Radulovic put HJK Helsinki ahead at Pittodrie but Bojan Miovski’s eighth goal of the season and his third in the Europe this season gave the Dons their first Conference League point.
The Dons boss was disappointed not to take all three points on what was a frustrating evening for Aberdeen in their first home game of the Conference League.
The draw leaves the Dons and Helsinki with a point apiece from two games with PAOK on six points after their 2-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt, who have three points.
Robson said: “I’m frustrated because I felt we deserved to win the game, that’s pretty evident.
“I am disappointed with the goal we lost, they had one shot – it was a sucker punch – and that was testament to how we defended and pressed.
“The frustration at having another 17 shots, we should have scored more and been more clinical.
“If we’d done that we could have won by three or four.
“They had a spell when we were down to 10 men and then early in the second half, but we dominated and were comfortable in the game.
“You have to take your chances.
“We have scored ten goals lately so we have been clinical in games but we had to be more clinical at the top end of the pitch here.
“Tonight that was the little wee bit missing, but it will come.”
Helsinki boss hails players for fighting through illness
Helsinki boss Toni Korkeakunnas was equally disappointed at only taking a point and he too was unhappy with the referee’s performance.
Korkeakunnas, who was booked by the official, said: “Anything can happen with VAR but I didn’t see an elbow. I saw a player run into our player.
“As you can see I was not happy with everything with the referee either but maybe I should not say anything.
“In the end there was so much pressure from the home team but it hurts to take a draw when you are ahead away from home.
“We are playing so many matches at the moment and it wasn’t the easiest to come here. We have a flu bug going through our team but our locker room is full of proper warriors.
“We faced a physical and direct team which has fast players up front and is good at set-pieces. We had good spells in the first half and started the second half really well.
“Maybe we scored too early but overall I have to be pleased. European away games are never easy to play and the home crowd was behind them.
“We will take this one and see how we get on in Helsinki.”
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