Sunil Chhetri: Sporting Lisbon has been an eye opener!

Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri is back in India for the ongoing preparatory India camp for the 2012 Nehru Cup in Bangalore after his first few weeks with his new club Sporting Clube de Portugal 'B'. Sunil interacted with the media after training for the first time under new national coach Wim Koevermans yesterday afternoon after he had arrived on Monday from Lisbon.

Speaking about his Portuguese experience so far Sunil said, "It has been a wonderful experience, its been just 28 days, playing at such a top level has opened up my mind. My mentality towards the way I look at football has changed completely!"

"The intensity of the game is much higher there, at a different level altogether," an elated Sunil added.

Now Sunil Chhetri is back amongst his India team mates and wants to win another Nehru Cup title, but this time he is not only a team member but the team captain and that bring with it added responsibility. On the aims for the tournament he said, "Being defending champions, we're looking to continue that and do well."

Coming to speak about Wim Koevermans strategy Sunil said, "We have been working on keeping the ball more. It will not happen overnight, but we are doing fairly well in practice now. The mantra for success for any team is to execute exactly what the coach says."

"We must understand what he wants from us, and we must play with his formula," Sunil added.