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Mitroglou focus reaps reward for Olympiacos

Olympiacos FC striker Kostas Mitroglou was calmess personified after becoming the first Greek player to score a UEFA Champions League hat-trick in a 3-0 win at RSC Anderlecht.

Kostas Mitroglou (right) celebrates scoring his third goal for Olympiacos
Kostas Mitroglou (right) celebrates scoring his third goal for Olympiacos ©Getty Images

Olympiacos FC striker Kostas Mitroglou was "enjoying the moment" after becoming the first Greek player to score a UEFA Champions League hat-trick, helping his side to a crucial 3-0 Group C win at RSC Anderlecht. Mitroglou's finishing boosted the Greek champions' qualification prospects at the expense of point-less Anderlecht, whose vanquished captain Guillame Gillet felt his side could have scored five and should have won.

Kostas Mitroglou, Olympiacos forward
When you don't get many opportunities in a game you have to score and take the chances when they come and you have to stay 100% focused on your goal. We deserved the victory and the good thing is that we got it and it doesn't matter who scores the goals. The third goal was my favourite one, although I can't describe it to you as I was just too happy about scoring a hat-trick. I just enjoyed the moment as much as I could.

We must focus on the game against Benfica and build on tonight's victory with another positive result. The double-header against them is very important and we'll need to apply the coach's instructions to the letter.

Vladimír Weiss, Olympiacos midfielder
We were a little bit lucky and our goalkeeper made a great save from the penalty, while at the start of the second half they put us under a lot of pressure. Our fantastic keeper showed his quality today. When 'Mitro' scored his second it was game over and they opened up a little bit, but credit to them because they played some good football.

We know Mitroglou can score from anything really and we missed him in the league at the weekend when he had a little knock but he was back today and he was brilliant. After the Champions League draw we knew we had a very good chance to qualify and after this great result we have a big match coming up against Benfica. It will be a totally different game, a different style of football and we have to be ready and not lose over there.

Guillaume Gillet, Anderlecht midfielder
We could have won the game and we should have won the game. There's a horrible feeling in the dressing room as we did everything necessary to get a good result here. Everybody gave it their all so losing 3-0 really hurts. We made a few defensive errors which we paid for and we didn't take our chances. We could easily have scored five goals as we had huge opportunities and we ended up not scoring at all.

We played well and with a lot of enthusiasm and all the young players should be proud of their efforts. If you just look at the score then you'd think we'd been thrashed when in fact it was the opposite. We'll have nothing to lose when we play Paris Saint-Germain and we want to finish in third place.

Frank Acheampong, Anderlecht forward
We played a great game and in football anything can happen. We wanted to win and played well but we missed a lot of chances. The good thing is that we created so many and now we need to improve our scoring ability in the coming games. There was bad luck for us in this game as we lost.

In football you can show skills and technical ability and the coach gives young players their chance so when we showcase our talent correctly we're going to come through with flying colours. Now the group is going to be tough for us and the Champions League is at a higher level than our domestic league. We're picking up experience and we'll take it on from here.

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