Scoring buzz fires up Forlán

The UEFA Champions League theme tune will once again reverberate around the banks of the river Manzanares on Tuesday and Club Atlético de Madrid fans will flock to the Vicente Calderón hoping to see their hero Diego Forlán bewitch visitors APOEL FC.

Goalscoring feats
That Los Rojiblancos are in European club football's élite competition for a second successive season owes a lot to the player known as Cachavacha for his apparent resemblance to a witch in a popular South American cartoon. The 30-year-old's run of at least a goal in the last eight games at the end of last term (12 in all) equalled Pruden Sánchez's 68-year-old club record and helped take Abel Resino's side into the UEFA Champions League play-offs. The Uruguayan's 32 goals last term also earned him his second Spanish top scorer Pichichi trophy and a second ESM Golden Shoe. "To have two golden boots is something I never thought would happen," Forlán told uefa.com. "I enjoy football a lot and scoring brings moments of happiness that can't be explained."

Building confidence
After managing just ten league goals in 63 games over three seasons at Manchester United FC, Forlán's fortunes improved after a move to Villarreal CF in 2004. The Uruguay international was top scorer with 25 Liga goals in his first campaign and helped the Yellow Submarine to a UEFA Champions League semi-final the next. "At Villarreal, Atlético and even at CA Independiente the important thing has always been the confidence the coach had in me to play 90 minutes," he said. "Playing match after match you develop your game and that's been the difference to what happened to me at Manchester where I didn't have such confidence."

Powerful partnership
These days confidence is clearly not a problem for Forlán whose partnership with Argentina's Sergio Agüero is a major reason behind Atlético's success. "We are a very good pair; we understand each other really well. We've been playing together for some time now and we are both very comfortable. We're totally different players who fit together on the pitch. He knows what I'll be looking for because I'm a little bit behind him and he knows what movements I make. This is not just the way with [Agüero] but also with Maxi [Rodríguez] and Simão. These understandings help everybody."

Back for more
Forlán made his hundredth competitive appearance for Los Colchoneros during Atlético's second-leg play-off triumph over Panathinaikos FC, and he is now looking forward to UEFA Champions League encounters with APOEL, FC Porto and Chelsea FC in Group D. "To be among the best teams in Europe again with this team is beautiful and historic for us," he said. "We went out [to Porto in the first knockout round] last year despite being unbeaten in the competition, but we enjoyed being there. Every player dreams of playing in [this competition]; the best teams are there and you always want to be competing at the highest level."