Sulley Muntari admits style might have to take a back-seat for a while if Portsmouth are to clinch a place in Europe this season.The £7.2million Pompey midfielder admits a UEFA Cup spot, come the end of the campaign, is now his minimum requirement to make amends for his Ghana team's failure to lift the African Nations Cup last month.
He scored three superb goals and earned some rave reviews but could not prevent the host country being knocked out in the semi-finals by Cameroon.
It was a bitter disappointment to him but he returned to help Portsmouth into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup at Preston last Sunday.
Pompey will face Sunderland in the Premier League at Fratton Park on Saturday and the combative midfielder said: "I'm completely refocused here again."
The powerful former Udinese star, who, Pompey boss Harry Redknapp brought from Italy in the summer, added: "The Nations Cup has gone now and I think the (Ghanaian) people were happy enough with our performance in the end even though I don't think many realise just what pressure there is being the home country.
"We knew everything was up to us to bring them success but I just wanted to go the final and win the cup for Ghana and now that's how I feel about getting into Europe with Portsmouth. I didn't go back home to show off my performance. I just wanted to win."
Muntari, Pompey's record buy before striker Jermain Defoe was signed for £7.5million from Tottenham last month, admits he had a sub-standard comeback at Deepdale where he was brought off for striker Milan Baros after 63 minutes.
Pompey were lucky to win with a stoppage-time own-goal and Muntari said: "It was just about all right, I got through it, but I felt the cold.
"It is the only thing about this country I don't like - the weather. I'm used to playing football in Africa and Italy but I know I'll just have to adjust."
Muntari is looking forward to meeting the Sunderland team managed by Roy Keane, with whom he trained at Manchester United back in 2001 when he was briefly on trial with the Old Trafford club as a 17-year-old.
He recalls: "I was only there for about one week and a half but I could never forget Roy Keane. I trained against him and he shouted at other players like it was a big competitive match. You could see he would one day become a manager - if he cooled down.
"But, of course, he is one of my heroes. Him and people like Patrick Vieira are who I look up to. I'm still far away from them now but it is my aim to do all I can for Portsmouth and at the moment that means Europe.
"We can get the Champions League or the UEFA Cup spot depending on how things go and, of course, we'll aim for fourth place but we don't always have to be the best team technically on the field as long as we remember that winning games is the most important thing of all."
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