Barry McNamee says Legia Warsaw are the best opposition he has faced – but says Cork City are firmly in their Champions League tie with the Polish side.
Cork lost the first leg 1-0 at Turners Cross and will look to overturn the deficit next week in the away leg.
Cork do have the safety net of going into the Europa League if they don’t get over this one.
“We’ll learn from it, set out another game plan for next week,” the Ramelton man said.
“They’re the best opposition I’ve played against, you can tell they’ve been in the Champions Cup group stages before.
“We knew the size of the club we were against and the quality of the players – it’s a step up in standard from anything we’ve played before.”
Michal Kucharczyk struck the only goal of goal of the game from distance. And McNamee says the long-range strike came as a big blow for the Leesiders.
He said: “It was down to things we worked on, like putting them under pressure. We knew they’d take chances, playing across the back.
“It was frustrating. We knew that they were a very good side and that we would be up against it – and it was a great goal, you can’t take away from the quality of the strike.
“The one thing we didn’t account for was a strike from 35 yards into the top corner.”
McNamee previously played in the Europa League with Derry City but this week saw the midfielder make his Champions League debut.
McNamee could have given Cork the lead, but he said: “So we won back possession but I didn’t take a good first touch and I was kinda under pressure.
“I took a swing with the right foot and just didn’t connect with it. It was one of those ones.
“But we also had two or three good chances in the second half, so it was kind of hard to take.
“They’re a good outfit but we’re not out of the tie – we’ll go out there and give it another go.”
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