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I have never faced anyone as good as Neymar - Shandong's McGowan

Ryan McGowan says he has never played against anybody as good as Barcelona ace Neymar.

The 24-year old Shandong Luneng defender was forced to play at right-back when Australia took on Brazil in a friendly in Brasilia last month and the result was a 6-0 drubbing, masterminded by the 21-year old attacker.

"When you come up against somebody like Neymar it's always going to be a huge challenge for anybody," he told SBS.

"Players of his quality only come along very rarely in football and I have never faced anybody of that class before.

"Before us, he had destroyed Portugal (in a 3-1 win for Brazil) and Barcelona don't sign you unless you have special qualities.

"While it was obviously very difficult, you can only learn from these types of situations.

"He does things other players can't and the game was big lesson for us as a whole and showed that we need to learn quickly with the World Cup only eight months away now."

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Andrew Slevison
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