Chelsea boss Frank Lampard: I know special things can happen at Stamford Bridge, we have to believe | football news

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Chelsea lost 2-0 to Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals at the Bernabéu. Frank Lampard remained optimistic about Chelsea’s chances in the second leg saying, “Special things can happen at Stamford Bridge”.

23:33, United Kingdom, Wednesday 12 April 2023

Frank Lampard knows from his experience as a player that ‘special things can happen at Stamford Bridge’ as he remained positive despite Chelsea losing 2-0 to Real Madrid.

Real Madrid dominated the Champions League quarter-finals with Chelsea by winning 2-0 in the first leg as Ben Chilwell was sent off.

The match became a damage-limiting exercise for Lampard’s side to survive the second leg in London after goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio.

Chelsea, whose season is drawing to a close, have now failed to score in four consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since December 1993.

Despite their troubles in front of goal, Lampard maintained their lead going into next Tuesday’s second leg.

He told BT Sport: “I’m proud of the 10 men. The disappointing thing is that you’re giving up a set piece for the second goal of a close. I don’t think with 10 men they got us open. It was because of the spirit.”

Terry Gibson describes the incident that led to Ben Chilwell being shown a red card for letting a Chelsea man down against Real Madrid.

“We had our chances in the game. Three good chances. Joao (Felix) earlier, Raheem (Sterling) and Mason (Mount) towards the end. There are some good things, but the result is the truth.

“But I told the players that special things can happen at Stamford Bridge. They are a very good team, but we have to believe.

“I thought there was a lot going for us, as a team as good as they are, but it’s been a tough period for the players and there’s a bit of a lack of faith.

“I think the players have to understand how good they are and what they can do. Maybe we’re a little short on that at the moment. I think there are some opportunities in possession to use the pitch more aggressively.

“There was some good there, but like I say the result is real, so next week it’s going to be a big fight.”

He added, “We’re realistic, we were beaten 2-0 against Real Madrid but that’s done now. I’ve been involved in games that change. We’re now in a different place where we want to prove some things wrong. To change the tone, to change the story, we went with ten players against Real Madrid.” “It was a disappointing night for the players but I also saw that they gave everything. It will be different next week, we weren’t favorites yesterday, we’re not favorites today. This is football. Our odds are if we take it.”

David Ornstein of The Athletic and Sam Wallace of The Telegraph discuss Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final first leg ‘One game won’t change my future’

Lampard is currently Chelsea manager on an interim basis only after the club sacked Graham Potter. Nothing has been discussed about Lampard staying beyond the summer, with the process of identifying and appointing a full-time head coach continuing. However, it is assumed that Lampard would be in the running for the job if he could steer them to Champions League success, which now seems unlikely.

“I don’t think one game will change my future – I’m here for a while until the end of the season,” he said.

“I took this job under that idea and I get it. I’m not thinking ‘what might happen in May or June’ – I’m trying to control things now. I don’t see it that way and I’m going to get asked this question a lot in the next six weeks but in my opinion I Here for a while, but then we’ll see.

Ancelotti: It’s not over yet Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti insists their Champions League match with Chelsea is far from over, despite winning the first leg 2-0

Meanwhile, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti insisted he was happy with the two-goal margin of victory and brushed off suggestions that they should have killed the tie.

“Don’t forget that Chelsea have a good team and good players,” he told BT Sport about his former team. “We won 2-0 and we took advantage of this match.

“It’s not over yet. We have to fight and sacrifice at Stamford Bridge. It’s completely normal. It’s the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

“We are satisfied with the game, it was a good game and now we are focused on the next game.

“When they played with 10 men, they put on a low block and it wasn’t easy to find a solution.

“We spent a lot of energy in the game trying to push high, so in the end we weren’t too fresh to try to find solutions. I think the result was good and so was the performance.

“The players know that there are another 90 minutes to play. It will be difficult and we have to be ready.”

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