McGivern boosted by Oporto feat Northern Ireland and Hibernian full-back Ryan McGivern believes coming up against Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani last month helped him make a breakthrough as an international player. McGivern performed admirably in the biggest test of his career against Portugal's star wingers and came out in credit as he helped his side to a 1-1 draw at the Dragao Stadium in Oporto. Most pundits expected Ronaldo and Nani, who swapped flanks on several occasions, to give McGivern a torrid time but he stood his ground and came out of the experience with new-found self-belief. "It was a great experience, probably one of the highlights of my career so far," said McGivern, who is expected to retain his place against Azerbaijan tomorrow. It's given me a bit of confidence - marking two of the top wingers in the game, Nani and (especially) Ronaldo, who's one of the best players in the world along with Lionel Messi. If I managed to keep those two quiet enough for 90 minutes it gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of my career. It was a great team performance. Portugal were ranked three in the world to go there and get a point was great. McGivern remains contracted to Manchester City but is enjoying his spell at Easter Road, already the sixth loan club of his career. So far it has proved a roaring success, with McGivern getting regular starts and Hibs topping the Clydesdale Bank Premier League ahead of Celtic. With City's multi-million pound recruitment policy showing no sign of abating, moving to Easter Road was not a hard decision. "It's a new challenge for me up in Scotland and I'm really enjoying it," he said. The team's doing well and I'm doing well myself so I hope it continues. If I wasn't going to be involved in the first team at City I never wanted to stay there and hang about. I want to get out and play games because I'm at an age now where I need to start developing and playing first-team football on a regular basis.