Birmingham City boss hails 'scintillating' Christian Benitez
Signed from Barcelona Sporting Club for £385,000, he was added as cover in the summer.
McLeish commented: “It was a tough game for him. You could see he was raw in terms of this type of rugged English football. The big centre-forward, Rickie Lambert, was a handful at first.
“The heading side of the game is something Gio is going to have to get used to, although there is now a lot of quality in the Premier League where balls go up to feet or in behind, to which he is more accustomed.
“But you could also see the South American side to him. When the balls goes down the line he gets in front of it and he shields the ball from the man, they do that so well.
“There were a lot of good things in his game. His use of possession was reasonable, pretty good, he picked out some long passes.
“At the moment we’ve got Roger Johnson and Franck Queudrue doing really well in there as centre-halves
“We had a chance to rest Roger with his knee, that was great, as it was to give Gio his first game. He will get confidence from that.”
