VALENCIA, Spain, April 5 - Valencia coach Hector
Cuper saluted his side for what he called their brilliance in a
stunning 5-2 victory over Lazio in their Champions League
quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.
But the Argentine insisted that Valencia would take nothing
for granted in the return leg in Rome in two weeks' time.
"In no way is this tie already won," said Cuper, whose words
were in danger of being drowned out by cheering supporters still
massed outside the club's Mestalla ground.
"We'll go in to the second leg with the idea that the first
match finished 0-0, rather than 5-2. We'll take that mentality
with us because it's not finished yet.
"But that was a brilliant display from us, for the most
part," added Cuper, after seeing his side go 2-0 up inside the
first three minutes and finally clinch a 5-2 win with a Claudio
Lopez strike in injury time.
"We've scored five goals against a club like Lazio and
that's quite an achievement. It's without doubt the best we've
played all season."
Cuper admitted that the "surprise" 2-0 lead his side were
able to take helped Valencia against a Lazio team that started
as clear favourites.
"Surprise did play a part," Cuper conceded. "But the result
was also a product of our ability to keep the pressure on them
for the whole 90 minutes.
"We worked hard all night and were helped by the crowd, who
were on our side throughout the game."
Valencia and Chelsea put down firm markers for a
Champions League semifinal place with
victories in quarter-finals first leg action on Wednesday.
Valencia, boosted by a fine hat-trick from Gerard Lopez,
hammered Lazio 5-2 while Chelsea beat Barcelona 3-1 in a classy
encounter at Stamford Bridge.
Valencia's victory in an exciting game gave the lie to
London betting that made the Spanish club 16-1 outsiders to land
the trophy.
Two goals in the first three minutes set Valencia on their
way and when Gerard completed his hat-trick they were 4-1 ahead.
A late flurry gave Lazio some hope when Marcelo Salas scored
but an injury-time goal from Claudio Lopez restored Valencia's
comfort zone.
Salas said: "It's difficult to explain a match like this
where we were two goals down within a couple of minutes...but
we're not out yet. Losing like this is obviously bad but we can
still do it."
An eight-minute golden spell from Chelsea put them 3-0 up
after 38 minutes against Barcelona with two goals from Tore
Andre Flo and one from Gianfranco Zola.
But Barcelona fought back well to create a series of chances
and the away goal, scored by by the omnipresent Luis Figo in
the 64th minute, could be a critical one when the two sides meet
in the return leg on April 18.
On Tuesday in the other quarter-finals, Manchester United
drew 0-0 away to Real Madrid while Bayern Munich also drew, 1-1
at Porto.
With the draw for the semifinal already determined, the
winners of Tuesday's ties play each other in the last four as do
the winners of Wednesday's ties.
The semifinals are due to be played in the first two weeks
of May.
