But Northern Ireland midfielder Sammy Clingan only has words of praise and admiration for Spain's destroyer in chief - Barcelona's Andreas Iniesta.

Clingan (23), who worked tirelessly for the Northern Ireland cause on Wednesday night and is surely on his way to the Premier League, is a big fan of Iniesta and watches him regularly working his magic on Sky Sports' La Liga programmes.

And for the Nottingham Forest midfield playmaker it was a joy to be on the same pitch taking on one of the world's greatest players - even if he didn't manage to show him up.

Apart from the losing the game, Clingan's only regret was that he wasn't able to swap shirts with Iniesta on the final whistle.

"Iniesta was different class and he tortured us all night," admitted Clingan.

"He's a player I've admired for some time. It's amazing what he can do with a football.

"You can always improve when you play against world class stars such as Fabregas, Xavi and Iniestia.

" I was absolutely shattered after the match ? totally exhausted.

" It was like running around chasing shadows at times on Wednesday night. We just couldn't get the ball of them. They kept possession so well and then the annoying thing was when we did get the ball we couldn't hang on to it."

Clingan was forced to play as a defensive midfielder in Las Palmas ? Spain were so dominant and had so much possession that he simply wasn't given the opportunity to display his attacking skills and expert deliveries from set pieces.

"It was so difficult to try and create any chances but I thought we did well not to crumble under all that sustained pressure," he added.

"We kept our shape well and for long periods in the first their best efforts were from outside the box.

"It was cruel that their goal came from a deflection.

Stephen Craigan was so unlucky.

"We'd held them so well for 45 minutes and kept in the match.

"But we never allowed our heads to drop and kept plugging away and for that the boys deserve credit.

"Playing in a match like this will only make us better players and we'll come back stronger and hungrier after this experience.

"We now can't wait to find out who we get in the World Cup qualifying draw on Sunday."