Russia coach Guus Hiddink blamed his side's "naive" defending as their Euro 2008 campaign began with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Spain in Group D.
David Villa scored a hat-trick and Cesc Fabregas bagged his first international goal as Russia were torn apart.
"If you saw the second and fourth goals - some school teams do not commit those errors," said Hiddink.
"We were rather naive in some situations. We were given a lesson in counter-attacking."
Spain's first goal came after Joan Capdevila disrupted a Russian attack and cleared to Fernando Torres, who brushed aside Denis Kolodin and squared for Villa to tap in.
Russia then lost possession at a corner and the prolific Valencia striker's ghosted away from his marker to slot past Igor Akinfeyev.
Villa's third came after he embarrassed Roman Shirokov before firing home.
606: DEBATEFollowing Roman Pavlyuchenko's consolation goal, Fabregas headed in from an unmarked position after Xavi found himself in similar space but had his shot parried.
Konstantin Zyryanov hit the post at 1-0 and Russia later hit the cross-bar, although the effort was disallowed for offside.
"We were rather naive in many situations then we didn't have any luck with hitting the bar and post," said Hiddink.
"The lesson is that we are playing well and created some chances but we were caught out because of our naivety and then got punished."
As a coach, Hiddink has never failed to reach the knockout stages at any major international tournament and he is confident Russia can still emerge from a group that includes Sweden and Greece.
"At the end in the dressing room, I said this is a tournament of three games. I hope the team can and will react," the 61-year-old Dutchman added.
"We were weak defensively - we were not streetwise - but with a young team it can happen and we hope to learn very fast."
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