Soccer:Enda Stevens took another step on his football learning curve as Shamrock Rovers felt the full force of Europa League big boys Rubin Kazan.

Although both clubs started their continental action this season in the Champions League qualifiers, the gulf was apparent at Tallaght last night as Kurban Berdyev’s men ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in their opening Group A clash.

Stevens will join Aston Villa in January with a deal already in place, but the 21-year-old has now seen at close hand what is required to perform at the highest level.

He said: “There is a big gap, you can see that. Their players have so much more experience, for one thing.

“They have played in the group stages of the Champions League, they have played at international level, and it shows. They are so good at keeping the ball.”

The tasks get little easier for Rovers, who will head for Tottenham later this month hoping to open their own account.

They are taking a realistic view of their European adventure after becoming the first Irish side to make it to the group stage of a Uefa competition.

Stevens said: “It’s an experience for us, it’s all a stepping stone for our club. We have made it this far, but we want to stamp our authority in Europe so in that sense, losing 3-0 is a disappointment.

“We had chances in that game, maybe if we take our chances in the next few games in the competition, we can get better results.

“No matter how good the opposition are, you will always get chances, you just have to take them, and we didn’t do that.”

Rovers found themselves a goal down with less than three minutes on the clock when former Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins converted a cross from Turkey international Gokdeniz Karadeniz, who only arrived in the country on the morning of the game because of visa problems.

Karadeniz was a threat throughout, although Rubin had to wait until the 50th-minute to extend their lead after Ryan Thompson had saved Nelson Valdez’s first-half penalty.

Christian Noboa’s sweet strike made it 2-0 and Karadeniz completed the job with an equally cultured finish 10 minutes later.

However in the meantime, Ronan Finn had seen a close-range header clawed away by goalkeeper Sergei Ryzhikov, who then blocked Stephen O’Donnell’s penalty with his leg as Rovers were denied even a consolation strike.

Manager Michael O’Neill was as philosophical in defeat as he had been before a game he knew would stretch his players to their limits, and perhaps beyond.

He said: “The one thing about football is it’s an education all the time, not just for the players, but myself as well.

“I was interested to read this morning Harry Redknapp’s comments about dealing with this fixture and how Tottenham weren’t equipped to deal with it, which brought a wry smile to my face.

“We don’t have the resource even in the sense that we only have a 21-man squad which meets the criteria for Uefa, as opposed to a 25-man squad, so there are a lot of things which are a steep learning curve.

“For the players, yes, it’s a huge learning curve. To fully utilise that, if I am 100 per cent honest, they will have to go on and play at a higher level than they are currently playing at because otherwise, this will always be like sporadic games against top, top-level players.

“To get to that level and to deal with the quality that we faced, the only way to do that is to do it on a regular basis, and obviously we don’t get the opportunity to do that.

“It was a massive learning curve for the players and for everybody else involved, and for me as well as a coach and manager.”