Raul delighted to make history

Raul was thrilled to bag Real Madrid's 700th goal in European competition with a strike in the 4-1 Champions' League win over Anderlecht. "It's important to become part of the club's history with goals like that," he said.

The Spain striker netted Real's second goal on 68 minutes after chipping Anderlecht goalkeeper Fillip de Wilde. "To score Real Madrid's 700th strike makes me very happy. I was lucky with the way the move worked out and I hit a beautiful goal."

"The truth is I was thinking about a straight shot but I saw the keeper come off his line and went for the chip."

"Many people had taken it for granted I was going to score the 700th. In the end it was me and it was very satisfying."

But Raul, who has played every minute of every game this term, was even more satisfied the team won. "What's more important is that we have taken a big step towards qualifying. We want to go through as group leaders."

"The match was tricky in the first half because we had not found our rhythm but we were still confident and regrouped at half time."

"Now we're going to try and qualify for the next stage in Belgium but it won't be easy because things don't always turn out the way you want them to."

The European Cup and the Champions' League have accounted for 533 of Real's 700 goals, with 57 scored in the Cup Winners' Cup and 111 in the Uefa Cup.

Only three and a half years have passed since current captain Fernando Hierro hit Real's 600th European goal in March 1998 against Bayer Leverkusen. Eight years went by between the 500th and 600th strike.