Frank Lampard has the chance to write another piece of “history” in his fairytale career.
Lampard won everything with Chelsea as a player but, even for one of English football’s all time greats, victory in the Bernabeu on Wednesday night would be another defining moment.
Chelsea legend Lampard lifted the Champions League back in 2012 to go with his Premier League winners’ medals and domestic cups. His record as Chelsea boss in his 18 months in charge deserves more success than it is often given and causing an upset against Real Madrid would never be forgotten.
As second chances go, Lampard’s return as caretaker boss just a week ago is one of the stories of the season. Little over a week ago, he was the former Everton boss waiting for another opening.
And ahead of Chelsea’s daunting task against the 14 time winners, Lampard spoke with a passion and authority which can surely only inspire his players. Lampard said: “Yes, it is amazing. I have been fortunate enough to manage in the Champions League – two seasons - and as a player it was always the special competition.
“So to be here as a manager particularly when a week ago today I did not know I would be here is a huge honour for me of course and a big part of my thought process when taking on the challenge here. This is an amazing challenge for me personally as well as for us a team and a club.
“We have very tough games in front of us, starting tomorrow. So there’s a lot of work to be done but we’re very committed to trying to, if we can, create our own little bit of history.”
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Lampard actually played down the “parallels” between his success in winning the Champions League in 2012 in his pre-match press conference despite trying to use it as an example in his team talk to the players.
But Lampard had absolutely no doubt that his Chelsea players will be able to handle the pressure and expectation of playing in the Bernabeu - even if his only appearance in the famous stadium ended in defeat.
“I only played here once in my career - England v Spain,” he recalled. “We lost and I didn’t get a kick. I absolutely remember the size of the stadium.
“So for our players, some young players but also we have players who have achieved a lot – Champions League winners, World Cup winners.
“So I don’t think it’s something completely new to them but of course this is a stadium and a quarter final is an occasion and we have to play the occasion because levels go up at this point in the competition.
“But we have to come here with the belief that we can perform under that pressure.”
Lampard admitted that Real Madrid are clear favourites based on Chelsea’s poor form in the Premier League this season.
But Lampard insists the challenge is to take the tie to Stamford Bridge and the Champions League can actually be a very welcome distraction no matter the quality of the opponents.
Lampard added: “The Champions League sometimes offers you a bit of escapism from that. Different speed of the game, knockout football, those things can all contribute to getting different success in the same season.
“I think when you get to this stage of the competition, you’re playing teams of the level of Real Madrid… Now those comparisons are pretty worthless.”
