Falcao not competing with Messi, Ronaldo

Posted Friday, September 28, 2012 by ESPN

Atletico Madrid's Radmael Falcao stated after the win over Real Betis that scoring more goals than the star duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is not his top priority.

The Colombian goalscoring sensation netted yet another brace against Betis on Wednesday, taking his tally to ten goals from six appearances in all competitions for Atletico.

But he has to continue scoring on a regular basis if he harbours any ambitions of winning the Pichichi title, awarded to the topscorer in the La Liga over the season. In the preceding campaign, Real Madrid's Ronaldo and Barcelona's Messi scored a staggering 96 goals between them in the league and have set a really high benchmark. Undaunted, Falcao had declared before the start of the season that he hoped to surpass the duo and try and become the league's top player in the new season.

However, the former Porto player stated in the aftermath of the Betis win on Wednesday night that he's not too concerned by the goal-scoring race between the three star forwards. For now, he opined that he was simply happy to see his side post a winning run and credited his team-mates as being responsible for his good form in recent weeks.

"I'm not competing with Cristiano or Messi; I score goals to help Atletico, nothing more," he told reporters after the game.

"I'm only concerned with scoring goals; we are competing with 19 other teams, not just against Barca and Real Madrid.

"Atletico was very good against a good Betis squad.

"I couldn't do this [score ten goals] without the squad. We had hopes of doing well in the beginning of the season and we are taking things game by game.

"We are doing well because we have the mentality to not think beyond the next game."

Atletico next visit Espanyol on Sunday in the La Liga and are currently second in the league.