HIBS star David van Zanten today backed his Easter Road team-mates to shrug off their six-goal thrashing at the hands of Barcelona, insisting it won't crush anyone's confidence.
Admitting the Spanish outfit's stunning Murrayfield performance had been "an eye-opener," Van Zanten claimed Mixu Paatelainen's side will put the bitter experience of being outclassed behind them when the Clydesdale Bank Premier League season gets u
nderway in a fortnight's time.
The Dublin-born defender revealed, however, he feared total humiliation as Barca's aces raced into a four-goal lead with only 27 minutes on the clock on Thursday.
He said: "Barcelona are a world-class team and they showed it. Anyone in a Barcelona shirt is going to be quality so we knew we would be up against it all over the pitch."
As if to underline Van Zanten's point, Icelandic striker Eider Gudjohnsen scored two of Barca's first three goals, the former Chelsea striker having become very much the forgotten man at the Nou Camp.
New Barca coach Pep Guardiola also had the luxury of leaving the likes of new signing Alexander Hleb, Yaya Toure, Samuel Eto'o and Krkic Bojan on the bench while Spain's Euro 2008 heroes Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernandez and Andrews Iniesta were all left sitting in the stand.
Van Zanten said: "Being four down so early on you really did fear the worst but I think the boys deserve some credit because we dug in, kept plugging away trying to stop them playing no matter how difficult it was."
Losing so heavily with the new season looming may have raised questions over the effect such a defeat will have on morale, but the former St Mirren player dismissed any such suggestion.
He said: "Obviously we'd have liked to have kept the score down a bit but it was an experience and hopefully we can learn from it.
"I honestly don't think it will harm our confidence at all, we have to face the fact we came up against a better team and better players.
"One consolation we do have, is knowing we won't be coming up against Barcelona 38 times in the coming months."
While Van Zanten had his hands full in trying to cope with Pedro Rodriguez and then teen sensation Bojan, 18-year-old Hibs kid Paul Hanlon was teased and tormented throughout the opening 45 minutes by Lionel Messi.
And while Hanlon probably won't appreciate Messi's scintillating performance at the moment, boss Paatelainen believes he'll soon be able to look back on the experience more fondly.
Revealing he didn't consider sparing Hanlon by substituting him, Paatelainen said: "I'm not sure Paul will appreciate it at the moment, but he is a young player with a level head.
"There is plenty to improve and that will come by playing against players such as Messi. It was very tough for him but after a couple of night's sleep he'll realise what a great learning curve those 90 minutes will be.
"I think if you'd put any Scottish full-back up against Messi they'd have found him so difficult to play against so I don't think Paul's performance was so poor.
"What he will have learned is a lot about his starting position, his positioning, how much room you give someone like Messi and how he relates to other players.
"It will be a horrible feeling for him at the moment but you gain experience from going through games like that and in years to come I am sure Paul will look back on Thursday night and thank Barcelona for the opportunity."
The full article contains 604 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
