Frank Lampard has sent a clear message of hope to Chelsea supporters as the Blues face a near-insurmountable task of overturning a two-goal deficit to European champions Real Madrid. Karim Benzema and Marcos Asensio were both on target in the Champions League quarter-final first leg as Ben Chilwell was shown a red card that confirms his absence for the return fixture at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening.
Momentum is certainly not on the side of Lampard and his players with Premier League defeats sandwiching the Champions League loss. Before their trip to Spain, Chelsea were beaten by Wolves at Molineux and this past weekend Brighton took the three points off the west Londoners to leave them still languishing in the bottom half of the league table.
With the second leg in mind, both teams rested key players. Chelsea left Thiago Silva and N'Golo out of the weekend's squad, while Toni Kroos and David Alaba both played no minutes for Carlo Ancelotti's men in the La Liga win against Cadiz.
