Stuart Armstrong tells humbled Aberdeen stars 'I've been here before' as he admits they got off lightly in Athens
The Scotland international and his Dons teammates were torn apart in the Greek capital on Thursday night
Stuart Armstrong was a second half substitute in Southampton's infamous 9-0 drubbing at the hands of Leicester City back in October 2019.
And the Aberdeen midfielder admits there could have been no complaints if AEK Athens had whacked them by the same scoreline on Thursday night.
Jimmy Thelin's team had put in a credible performance against a similar calibre of opposition when they ran Shakhtar Dontesk close in a 3-2 thriller at Pittodrie on matchday one in the Conference League but were given a reality check of the highest order in the Greek capital.
They shipped three goals in either half to consign the club to their biggest ever defeat in European competition, eclipsing 5-1 losses to Sigma Olomouc and Bayern Munich in 2009 and 2008 respectively.
Armstrong, 33, returned to Scotland last summer after six years away from his home nation and concedes that his new team got off lightly against AEK.
"I think that's probably fair", he said. "I think they hit the post four or five times as well. It's never nice to experience that, where you feel like you were never really in the game.
"We didn't fight the way we wanted to fight. They have a lot of quality and they are a good team. But we made them look like an even better team with the way we played.
"It's still a bit raw just now. There is a lot to process and a lot to analyse.
"The short story is that we let ourselves down a bit and made it easier for them than it should have been.
"Everyone is professional and things like this happen. Throughout my career, there have been a number of times where we have been beat heavily.
"During those times you need to think about what went wrong and how you can improve as a player and as a team to make sure the next time around you are more experienced to correct things in-game rather than experience it afterwards."
The Dons made a decent start at the OPAP Arena but three goals in the space of 17 first half minutes quickly took the tie away from them.
Armstrong - who was hooked after 62 minutes against AEK - admits that the quickfire nature of the goals in both halves really knocked the stuffing out of them but reckons it's going too far to suggest that panic had set in amongst the men in white.
"I wouldn't say panic", he added. "I would say the feeling particularly in the first half was because they scored quickly one after the other.
"When that happens you need to regroup and try and regain shape or control and be harder to play against.
"It was transitional at the start, both teams were going back and forth and it was very open.
"Sometimes when the game is open like that against good players, they punish you. They are a team full of good players and they exploited the space that we gave them.
"It's not an ideal night or performance, far from it as the game was over after an hour. We will be looking at it tomorrow on the way we can avoid that kind of performance in the future."
The Reds have the chance to make amends when they welcome Hibernian to Pittodrie on Sunday and will hope that a third straight Premiership win can shoot them up the table after a dismal start.
But the 51-time Scotland cap isn't naïve enough to suggest that the Aberdeen squad won't still be coming to terms with their humiliating night in Athens when they run out against the Hibees.
He continued: "I think it needs to affect you in some way, you need to learn from it.
"It's a tough result on a tough night and it's also a learning game, experience and character building.
"So to say it doesn't affect you will be would be wrong. It needs to affect you in the right way.
"You need to take parts of it as it will be good for you in the future. We need to remember it but not dwell on it.
"We were beaten heavily, outperformed but will learn from it and focus our mind on Sunday.
"The most disappointing thing about it is that it was off the back of two really good performances.
"Sunday is important regardless but probably a bit more now after Thursday."