Spartak Moscow's plucky 3-2 defeat at Barcelona on Wednesday left winger Aiden McGeady disappointed, the Irishman said.
Spartak looked to be headed for an unlikely 2-1 victory at the Camp Nou until Lionel Messi scored a late brace to snatch all three points for the Spanish giants.
McGeady got an assist for the goal that put Spartak ahead, scored by young Brazilian midifelder Romulo.
"We could have got ourselves off to a good start but it's very, very difficult to come to the Nou Camp and win," he said. "We were close to winning, close but you always know Barcelona are going to have chances and they had their chances in the second half and they took them."
McGeady, who joined Spartak from Celtic in August 2010 and has scored eight goals in more than 60 appearances for the Russian club, said a reasonable personal performance didn't make up for the lack of a good result.
"You're never going to see much of the ball and I never had one on one situations, it was just really trying to keep the ball," he said. "I did ok, set up the second goal, so overall ok. Disappointed we didn't come out with something," he added.
But the team took positive from the overall performance, McGeady said.
"A 3-2 result at the Nou Camp isn't that bad, a lot of teams come here and get beat five or six nil, so we can take a lot of heart from that."
With Benfica and Celtic's goalless draw in Glasgow the other match in Group G, Barcelona go top of the group with Spartak last.
McGeady faces his old club Celtic next in Moscow on October 2.
