Philippe Clement has spoken to the press after the draw with Aberdeen. Here is everything he had to say.

What are your feelings?

That we should have won this game, that we had the best chances and that it was a day - and you have them - that things don’t fall your way. That’s because of a good goalkeeper on the other side, twice hitting the crossbar, not taking good chances. But finally, we got the goal and I think for everybody it’s really clear that it’s a penalty. Connor’s shirt is really pulled. So at the end we lose two points but the big working point is that our first 50 minutes were not good - and I’ve said that to the team. We were not sharp enough at the start of the game. The moment we started winning the duels, after 50 minutes, we started to dominate, we created chances, we played the best football. So we need to get to that level for 90 minutes.

Do you feel it is a missed opportunity?

It’s nothing to do with top of the table or whatever. If you have the expected goals we had today, we should have scored more goals. It’s a big expected goal tally for an away game against a tough opponent, a good opponent. All credit to Aberdeen. For sure when you go behind against them, they defend with numbers, with a lot of passion, in small spaces. So it’s not easy to create all these chances. So in that way, the team did really well. And then it’s about centimetres. Twice we hit the crossbar. That could have been two goals and we had some other really good opportunities.

What can you take from today ahead of the cup final?

No surprises. As I said, there’s a lot of respect towards them, it’s a difficult team to breakdown. And if you go behind it’s even more difficult. But the positive point is that my team showed resilience, they never gave up, not even at the end of the game. Sometimes you can have this feeling in teams that when things don’t go your way, you twice hit the crossbar, they make a few good saves, your shots get blocked and people give up. I didn’t see any of that and I don’t want any player who does that. We’ve spoke enough about that the last couple of weeks. I want players who go full out until the last seconds of the game. We showed against Hearts that we can come back at the end of the game and we showed that again today. 

Was it bad luck or bad execution in those fine moments?

It’s both, of course. Hitting the bar is bad luck, it’s a question of centimetres. We had other chances where we could have done better. But I also see really top strikers like Haaland not scoring every opportunity they get. We’re really demanding and we train a lot on finishing. But I know also it cannot be every time a goal. 

Does the penalty show the positive side of VAR?

I was asked this question a few weeks ago, about my opinion of VAR, and I’m a fan. Because it makes the game more honest. Of course there are still some mistakes and some decisions that stay in a grey area. That’s also why you guys have a lot of work, because there are a lot of opinions after games and I think you guys like that also. People respond and are fans for one team or another.  But in the end, if you are objective, you can only say VAR makes the game more honest than in my days. So I’m a fan of that. 

Today it worked and clearly it was a penalty?

Clearly, it’s a penalty. If you pull a shirt like that, you see the shirt comes like this. It’s a penalty. You cannot use your hands in that way. 

How do you think Jose Cifuentes played?

He’s a different type than Ryan but he did a good game. For sure, it’s not easy coming back after an injury, against a good opponent in a game with high tempo. It’s positive and also credit to the work of the medical staff and Jose over the last couple of weeks. He trained really well and was able to play 90 minutes in a game of this level. 

How long will Ryan Jack be out for?

We don’t know yet. I don’t think it will something for a long time, more a short time, but I don’t know if he’s going to be ready for Thursday night. I think it will be on the edge. 

Does he have a decision to make about playing international football?

We can think about that. I’ve been in that situation also as a player, when in one moment you feel your body is getting more difficulty in coping with both because you never have a rest moment. We will see in the next couple of weeks if we need to have this talk or not. But first I want to speak with my medical staff about those things.