Given the evidence of these 90 minutes and past history, the Easter Road outfit's journey to the Boras Arena for Saturday's return leg is highly unlikely to see Hibs, still ring rusty, overcome a slick Swedish outfit currently hitting top form in the
ir own league, in which they lie second with just one defeat in 12 matches.
Only twice in the past have Hibs lost the first leg of a European tie and managed to progress, the stunning 5-0 win in Edinburgh over Napoli in 1967 followed five years later by an equally emphatic 6-1 triumph against Sporting Lisbon.
However, on those occasions those victories had been preceded by defeat on foreign soil. Now Hibs need to score three goals without reply in an away leg if their interest in this competition – and the dream of moving on to the UEFA Cup itself – is to be maintained.
Perhaps an indication of the scale of the task facing Paatelainen's stars is reflected in the fact that Elfsborg have conceded just three goals in the Allsvenskan so far, none of them on their own plastic pitch, another factor which helps swing the odds, already heavily in their favour, further in their direction.
Hope, though, does spring eternal and one early goal from Hibs could totally change the complexion of this tie as both Paatelainen and his Elfsborg counterpart Magnus Haglund claimed, the Hibs boss obviously needing to remain upbeat while the Swede was anxious to guard against complacency.
"No, the job is not yet done," insisted Haglund. "We have 90 minutes and Hibs are such a good team they could score two goals at Boras and then you do not know what happens."
But even Haglund, who had declared Hibs the favourites despite this being the Edinburgh club's first match of the season, had to admit he was delighted with the scoreline as both he and Paatelainen agreed the match had gone much to expectations, with the Swedes making their superior match fitness tell.
He said: "The first half was close, very tight. Hibs had a lot of energy in the first half as I had expected. I also expected them to get a little tired in the second half as they have been training a lot in their pre-season."
Hibs' performance in those opening 45 minutes pleasantly surprised Paatelainen, who had spent the days leading up to the game warning Easter Road fans not to expect his side to be in peak condition, his stated aim being to have his players, aided by competitive games such as these two against Elfsborg, up to speed for the opening day of the SPL season still more than a calendar month away.
He said: "It was exactly what I expected. Make no mistake, we are disappointed but we expect this and that is why we are in this competition. We wanted competitive fixtures straight away and there are plenty of positives we can take from the match.
"In the first half the boys showed surprisingly good match sharpness but we ran out of steam a bit. But that was expected and unfortunately we were beaten by a quality team, there's no doubt about that."
As Paatelainen had predicted, Elfsborg were well organised, well disciplined, displaying sharp, incisive passing and a defence which left little for goalkeeper Johan Wiland to do, orchestrated by Anders Svensson, capped 93 times by his country, the last three of which came during Euro 2008, in which he played every single minute.
If pre-season training is designed to prepare the body for the exertions ahead, so too is there a need for the mind to be conditioned to the need to concentrate for every second of every game, a fact which was exploited by Elfsborg, with Emir Bajrami, Denni Avdic and Daniel Mobaeck playing on the last shoulder seeking to take advantage of any lack of cohesion in Hibs' back four.
Goalkeeper Yves Ma-Kalambay had already been forced into diving at the feet of Mobaeck before a delightful pass from Svensson caught Hibs flat-footed, Bajrami darting through to steer the ball into the far corner of the net from a tight angle.
If Elsborg proved a touch profligate in front of goal – Haglund believed his side could, and should, have scored more – Hibs also had their chances, Filipe Morais watching his well-struck shot booted aside by the left foot of Wiland. The goalkeeper later got his fingertips to a low drive from Steven Fletcher, a save which could well prove crucial over the two matches coming, as it did, seconds before Andreas Augustsson's effort was deflected by Martin Canning and beyond the stranded Ma-Kalambay.
Hibs also enjoyed a few half-chances but, as in the final five games of last season, lacked that cutting edge to hurt the opposition.
Midfielder Ian Murray admitted: "We didn't create much, I don't think we had a clear-cut opening. We didn't get at their defence, which as disappointing. It was a hard shift, they showed their strengths and beat us fairly comfortably."
But like Paatelainen, Murray insisted there was still a glimmer of hope for Hibs, albeit that's as good as it looks. He said: "We need to get an early goal as they have two away goals, which makes them massive favourites. We are struggling to qualify, to be honest."
Paatelainen also refused to concede defeat but agreed with Murray that Hibs now face a huge battle to make any progress in the competition. Accepting Elfsborg could well have scored more, he said: "By the same token we could have scored.
"It was obvious, though, that they were a team ready to play. Next week we will be a little bit better but we still won't be ready. After the summer you do not get into the swing of things until four or five matches.
"They kept the ball much better and at the end of the day it was fitness that showed."
And that is what Paatelainen firmly believes, that short-term pain will result in long-term gain ahead of the new SPL season.
The full article contains 1066 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
