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Think Hampden is only getting something like £15m, so wouldn't expect much. We should really be proposing that the draw is open so there's a chance we end up in a group that doesn't have Hampden in it. From an Aberdeen point of view, potential to rent our training ground out to someone for the tournament.

He kicks his leg out of the way. It's a granitewall penalty. IMG_3010.mov another angle:

As far as I'm aware, someone who was listening in to the VAR said it wasn't checked. There was no dialogue to suggest they were even looking at a replay.

Ajax now second bottom of the league with just one win. A lot of Ajax fans also not happy with Jay Gorter (remember him?), who is now injured, but has been their goalkeeper for most of the season after their first choice was injured.

He's the captain now as well ain't he?

One of the BBC reporters who was at the game asked and was told they didn't check it. I believe him. And so should you. The BBC would never lie about such important matters.

As for VAR, how can Fifa not see it's destroying football? They apparently didn't even check the penalty, yet they checked PAOK's. The more it goes on the less enthused I am about football. That said, Aberdeen chucking it tonight wasn't all down to VAR. Let's also not forget the terrible first half performance, which consisted of two passes then a punt up the park every time we had possession. I've, bizarrely, been at all three of Celtic's Champions League games this season. I'd give you everything I have to get Scales back. I apologise for ever saying he was average (that said, he never reached those levels at Aberdeen).

The last 20 minutes I was missing large chunks of it, so although saw the goals and what should have been a penalty, didn't see much else. So someone explain to me, what did Robson's changes actually do, and why were they so shit (besides taking off Barron).

Good. Maybe it'll send a message to the club that the ticket prices were too high. Greedy bastards.

While I agree with all this, Robson isn't helping himself with the long ball football. If he wanted a passing football philosophy and was having to revert to long ball because of the personnel he had or because it was being effective short term, then fine. But we struggle when we go long ball and we look good when we keep it on the deck. I think too often Robson expects it to be a battle against certain teams and sets the team up that way.

Team as expected. MacKenzie/Hayes and Clarkson/Barron were the two midweek subs around the hour mark, and Robson has now started with that side. You don't want to make too many changes when you're on a decent run and you've got an international break to rest a few players anyway.

We were falling to the deck way too much. I think they were hoping a foreign ref would fall for it, but so many moves broke down because of it. Was a meh performance, draw probably a fair result. Helsinki knocked it around well and could have had a few as well.

The thing with the Ibrox formation is it's a counter attacking one. It's also slower, which Robson has maybe learned we need to be away from home and that his plan to overwhelm teams with quick passing football doesn't work against the better teams. I don't know how good Helsinki are, but I expect being at home we'll revert back to the 3-4-1-2 that we used v Ross County. Robson now has a welcome problem with who does he pick. Does Clarkson get dropped, does Barron start, do they both start and McGrath gets dropped? And all three are playing well at the moment. Been a while since I felt we had competition for places. Harsh on Duk @OrlandoDon - he was excellent v Ross County (home). Dunno if you get to see it over there (it's geoblocked) but Sportscene isolated his performance in that game.

Of those four, Hearts was abject, but since then we've fairly come on like and today was just smashing. Best Helsinki, surely beat St Johnstone, and that's a very good run indeed. Maybe that Hearts performance, and the subsequent criticism, was what we needed to give us a kick up the arse.

Thought it was going to be a terrible day with how we started the game. For 30 minutes we couldn't kick our own arse. But after we took the lead we played some excellent stuff. Three goals at Ibrox for the first time in 26 years. And Scott Wright being sent off was the icing on the cake. Jack McKenzie's best performance in an Aberdeen shirt? Was inviting fouls down the left, had Scott Wright in his pocket up until the red card, technically gets an assist for the second goal and scores the third. Beaten to the man of the match award only by Graeme Shinnie who was just perfect. My fucking captain.

Useless prick.

Were terrible until we scored. Since then we've looked really good, half-time probably came at the wrong time for us because I fancied us for a second. Just don't start the second half the way we started the first. Constantly giving the ball away and I think we may have lost every header today.

Got a funny feeling Devlin will score today. No idea why. Devlin winner at Ibrox just sounds great. 33/1 for him to score anytime. Also 28/1 on a Rubezic red card seems like smart money considering the venue. Please remember to gamble responsibly.

Red TV. I paid £9 to sign up for a month just to listen to the commentary last night. MacDonald will get his chance at some point on account Rubezic is surely not far away from a red card.

Outrageous suggestion. Someone get the Hibs v Aberdeen thread started so we can begin discussing the late kick-off, how many tickets we'll sell, and if we should demand the east stand out of principle.

Well, the last time Aberdeen & Hearts did actually get drawn against each other (1996), the other semi was... Rangers v Celtic.

Aye that 00 semi was good. Sunday night kick-off so think we only sold 6500 tickets but everyone was up for it. Everyone wanted us to lose because Hibs for the cup and all that. 93 we played them at Tynecastle when it was still terracing, Scott Booth winner. Hearts took the lead against Rangers at Celtic Park at the same time as we scored so for a brief time we thought we were getting an Aberdeen/Hearts final. 2012 is one of those games you're glad we lost, as we were gash and probably would have been on the end of the 5-1 drubbing Hibs got in the final off Hearts. I also think that defeat was the catalyst for the Aberdeen board beginning to realise we needed to invest more in the squad. 2017 was one of my favourite away days. First time we'd put on a supporters bus, everyone pished, five-goal thriller, lovely.

We've avoided Hearts again. Which is a peculiar thing. Both clubs make it to Hampden regularly, more regularly than most in Scottish football. Yet, in the two cup competitions, throughout all the years, we've only ever played two semi-finals against each other and one final. In the last 16 years, there has been seven occasions where Aberdeen and Hearts have both been in the semi-final draw together and have avoided each other each time; four in the League Cup and three times in the Scottish Cup. And of course, they've not met in a final in any of those years - the closest being 2014 when Aberdeen made the LC final, but Hearts - despite playing in Edinburgh against nine-man Inverness - lost on penalties. On the contrary, this will be the fifth Aberdeen-Hibs semi-final I'll have been at. The others being 93, 00, 12 and 17. Won three and lost one. Two of those years, Hearts were also in the semis. The chances of an Aberdeen v Hearts final this year? Well, incredibly, in their near 150 year history, Hearts have never beaten Rangers at Hampden.

We didn't qualify for Europe just to roll over and finish bottom like we're Hearts. Win and it's worth €500,000 and helps improve our coefficient for future draws. Beating Rangers would be lovely, but Thursday bigger imo.