Manchester City defender Micah Richards has played down their defeat to Sporting Lisbon.
In his blog for mcfc.co.uk, Richards remarked: "I know we didn't get the result we wanted but it was still great for me to pull on the armband as I did in the second half against Portland Timbers.
"People will read what they want into the Lisbon game but we were playing for just the second time with about eight World Cup players still missing and Lisbon were having something like their eighth pre-season friendly.
"We know we could have done so much better and that we made mistakes but better to get those out of the system now than have them happen in the middle of August."
