Kilmarnock suffered the cruellest of European defeats in the Danish capital as they went down 2-0 to FC Copenhagen.
Killie frustrated their hosts for much of the first leg of their UEFA Conference League play-off but fell to a harsh VAR-assisted penalty and then a set-piece goal just as five minutes of stoppage-time elapsed.
Kilmarnock goalkeeper Kieran O’Hara, again deputising for the injured Robby McCrorie, had been largely untroubled before Kevin Diks’ penalty was just out of his reach in the 77th minute.
Italian referee Fabio Maresca had stopped play out of the blue before going to the monitor and penalising David Watson for catching Mohamed Elyounoussi on the calf as the pair challenged for a bouncing ball at a corner.
The former Celtic winger had already played the ball with the corner coming to nothing and the incident was far from clear or obvious, as well as being inconsequential, immediately at any rate.
Worse was to come for Killie when Rasmus Falk volleyed home from a half-cleared corner to leave the visitors with an uphill task of reaching the group stage and accessing what manager Derek McInnes had described as “unimaginable” financial benefits of about £4million.
McInnes handed full-back Jack Burroughs a debut following his loan and started with both Kyle Vassell and Marley Watkins for the first time this season.
Copenhagen beat Manchester United and Galatasaray at the Parken Stadium last season on their way to the last 16 of the Champions League but Killie gave them a scare when Watson sent Vassell through one-on-one with Denis Vavro.
Vassell beat the centre-back before being hacked to the ground but Maresca decided Diks was just about to cover and brandished a yellow card.
Killie had a series of set-pieces before O’Hara pulled off his only first-half save of note to safely parry Vavro’s bouncing 30-yard strike behind for a corner.
Liam Donnelly and Lewis Mayo made some crucial challenges in the Killie box and the former saw a shot deflected wide after Watkins got in behind towards the end of a satisfactory first half for the visitors.
The Danes stepped up a gear just after the break with Giorgi Gocholeishvili heading wide from a good chance before O’Hara saved from Elyounoussi.
Stuart Findlay made some good interventions and Diks fired wide as Killie continued to look solid despite being pushed back.
The Italian match officials had other ideas though and Elyounoussi fired over from six yards after Killie were caught out moments after the opener.
With striker Vassell off with a knock, the Ayrshire side looked to be settling for a narrow defeat until Falk’s volley flew past O’Hara seconds after the five minutes of time added on were up.
