BATE treble no gift for Valencia's Soldado

Both sides concluded that the first goal was the key to Valencia CF's 3-0 UEFA Champions League win at FC BATE Borisov, with hat-trick scorer Roberto Soldado adamant that the Group F victory was not as easy as it looked. Meanwhile, the Belarusian champions were left to ponder some "childish mistakes" at the Dinamo Stadion.

Roberto Soldado, Valencia forward
It was not an easy game. The key was the first goal, as after that BATE had to open up and we had more space. We started very well from the first minute, because we were very focused on doing our job. The next game will be the most important one of the first half of our season as a win could drive us into the knockout phase, and we will try to play the same way we did today. We knew Bayern lost here despite being superior in terms of possesion, but it is more important not to lose the ball because BATE are very quick in hitting back.

David Albelda, Valencia defender
The weather does not seem that cold to me. If it was a month later, maybe it would be, but Valencia aim to win regardless of the conditions. BATE were not that bad – they had enough opportunities to score. However, our goal forced them to push forward and allowed us more space, and that is exactly what we need. We will try to strengthen our position in the group in our home game.

Edgar Olekhnovich, BATE midfielder
We lost because of that goal in the end of the first half. That laid us low. We cannot dominate teams at this level. When we had to score we pushed forward leaving huge gaps in defence. The second half was bad – our passing was awful. We made childish mistakes in the simplest of situations. Of course, we want to qualify for the Champions League knockout phase, and we will do our best to do that. The game in Valencia will tell us a lot about our future prospects. We cannot get hung up over this defeat. We need to play our game.

Dmitri Mozolevski, BATE forward
We were too open after going behind, and as a result Valencia kept hitting us on the break. Maybe we did not deserve to lose by such a margin, but we deserved to lose. However, we are not going to panic. We still have three games left and our destiny is in our own hands. We can't afford to let our heads drop – we have to work. If we had scored first it would have been different. We would have had more chances. Valencia are a great team – their short-passing game is very good. And they took their chances.

Aleksandr Volodko, BATE midfielder
Valencia controlled the ball and had more territorial possession in the first half. The penalty spoiled our gameplan completely. We had our chances to score closer to the end of the first half, but we missed some counterattacking opportunities after our own breaks led to their goal. We could have scored early in the second half, but conceded a second instead. After that, we played very open football and Valencia could have score a few more. We have seen how they play, and need to make proper conclusions now.