Bryan Ruiz reflects on Wednesday's encounter with Monaco and the use of the captain's armband

Their are plenty of new faces in Alvalade this season, but the pre-season also saw another debut which has been a long time in the making, with Bryan Ruiz given the captain's armband for Sporting's encounter with Monaco on Wednesday night.

"It is a pleasure for me", opened the Costa Rican, before going on to speak about the match itself and the fans: "We did well in the first-half. Of course we were a bit tired after the break and our opponent made the most of that. We will get better as we play more matches, but I would say we deserved more. I want to say thank you to the fans. It is really nice see the fans travel around Europe with us and I hope that carries on."