Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass showed a refreshing sense of humility after his side exited the Europa Conference League at the play-off round, having been beaten 4-1 on aggregate by Azerbaijani side Qarabag.
Trailing 1-0 from the away leg, the Dons fell behind early to Tural Bayramov's crisp strike and further goals from Kady Borges and Abdellah Zoubir as the visitors had the tie closed out long before Lewis Ferguson netted a stoppage-time consolation from the penalty spot.
And Glass conceded his side were well beaten by the better side, saying: "The better team pretty clearly won. We started OK but they scored a goal out of nothing.
"Their quality players produced which is always the danger when you play a side of that level.
"We knew they would enjoy the pitch here – top players do – and they have a team littered with top players. It's no embarrassment to say 'they're a level above us'.
"The biggest lesson is how much we look after the ball. We showed we're capable of that in the second half when the game was gone but I think we looked more dangerous and gave their top players less opportunity to hurt us.
"We gave the ball away cheaply at times but good teams force you into doing that. It's important that when we have a better group of players than teams we're playing against, we do that to them too."
However Glass sees clear potential in what is, in places, a very young squad, singling out Calvin Ramsay for praise, adding: "Calvin just turned 18 a couple of weeks back and his performance level was brilliant throughout.
"It's a great learning experience for a young player like that. He didn't look like he had to learn other than a few situational things, and we're delighted with how he's progressing.
"We have a strong group and will still look to add. We have to go and win against Ross County on Sunday. That's the same incentive – we beat Hacken and looked to the next game and that's what we'll do after being beaten by a better side."
