Historic Sporting goals lift Liedson

Sporting Clube de Portugal are now the 12-goal top scorers in the UEFA Europa League group stage, with a 5-1 Group C win against KAA Gent helping Liedson reach a number of landmarks for the Lisbon side.

Liedson, the highest European scorer in the club's history, took his tally to 25 goals in 57 games with a first-half double, his first strike of the night also being his team's 200th in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League. "They were two landmark goals," said the 32 year-old, who was playing in his 300th competitive game for the club. "It was very positive, but the victory was the most important thing because we are closer to the last 32. We helped each other on the pitch. We knew what we wanted."

In top form in Europe, Sporting have good reason to be looking ahead to the next phase of the competition with confidence, having picked up nine points in their first three Group C games. Portuguese international Liedson, a Sporting player since 2003, remains cautious though. "We want to go as far as we can. There is a long road ahead of us and there are a lot of great teams, but we are playing well and we must continue this way."

Hélder Postiga scored Sporting's fifth of the night, and said: "We started very well, scored early and took a lot of confidence from that. Then we managed to perform well and score a lot of goals." However, the rematch in Belgium on Matchday 4 is unlikely to be as easy, and the 28-year-old added: "The next match will be totally different because Gent will play at home. Can we reach the final? We will think one game at a time. Right now we are aiming for the last 32."

Stef Wils scored the consolation goal for Gent, his first in 14 European games, but was not a happy man at the end. "It is always nice to score, but if you lose 5-1 it is useless," he explained. "We pulled it back to 2-1 and were still in the hunt to get a result, but five minutes later it was 3-1. We felt that blow and conceded two more. Now if we want to go through we need to win at home."

Keeper Bojan Jorgačević agreed. "We conceded two goals very quickly and got very confused while defending," the 28-year-old Serbian said. "Looking at the game as a whole, we did not follow the instructions we were given before the game. We gave Sporting a lot of space. That was the key for this match. Sporting are a really strong team but now we must try to get points in Belgium."