Points matter most for Morientes
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Article summary
Summer signing Fernando Morientes was more excited about Valencia CF's away win against Olympiacos CFP than scoring a perfect hat-trick in Athens last night.
Article body
Fernando Morientes was more excited about Valencia CF's away win against Olympiacos CFP than scoring a perfect hat-trick at the Georgios Kariaskakis stadium.
Perfect hat-trick
The Spanish side celebrated a superb 4-2 win against their Greek opponents in Athens, with Morientes scoring a perfect hat-trick - one goal with his left foot, one with his right and a third with a header - to take his UEFA Champions League tally to 30 in 76 appearances. He insisted his team's success in securing a first win in Greece at the fourth attempts was a bigger prize than his Man of the Match award. "It's great to get such an award but I don't care about the goals," he told uefa.com. "The best thing that has happened to Valencia is that we have scored goals and won away from Spain in the UEFA Champions League."
No magic touch
Morientes has made a habit of scoring against Greek teams, having put two past Olympiacos in previous encounters and also scored against AEK Athens FC. "It's not a tradition - it has just worked out that when I have played against Greek teams I have scored," he said. "I play as striker and it's my job to score goals and this is what I have done." Despite having scored five goals in all competitions this season, the former Real Madrid CF and Liverpool FC striker is refusing to set himself a target for the campaign, but he is hoping Valencia's team spirit can prove the difference between success and failure in this season's UEFA Champions League.
Valencia mentality
"I haven't set any goals target for myself, the only thing that matters is if the team wins," Morientes said. "I play with the same mentality as the rest of our team, which is to play as a united unit to get results and go forward. The thing with Valencia is that throughout their history they have always made use of every available player and that is still true now. Even if we only had eleven players available we would go out and fight. I don't know how far we will go, it's very difficult to predict. But, if we continue to play with the same spirit and attitude we can do well."
