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Frank Lampard has told the Chelsea players their ‘standard cannot go down’ after they put in a ‘really good’ performance in their defeat to Real Madrid.
Chelsea he had plenty of work to do ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid, as the English side were beaten 2-0 in Spain last week.
The Blues have had a few chances to get back level but, as they have been for much of this season, have been a waste when opportunities have presented themselves
Real Madrid punished the hosts in the second half. Rodrygo scored twice as the La Liga side won 4-0 on aggregate to set up a semi-final tie with Man City or Bayern Munich.
This defeat is a new blow for Chelsea, whose hopes of playing in Europe next season have now faded. They have now lost four games in a row since Lampard returned to the club as interim head coach.
Lampard said after the match that Chelsea «played very well» for an hour against Real Madrid.
“We played really well for 60 minutes, and maybe it’s normal after the goal – it’s 3-0 in the draw and we make some changes to do that – maybe it’s normal how the game plays out to some extent, but 60 minutes, really good chances. , really good at this level and you have to catch them,” Lampard told BT Sport.
«You don’t want to praise the performance too much when you lose at this level because it’s over, but obviously when you’ve been this season where are we…»
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When asked about the rest of the season, Lampard added: «We play for Chelsea, so no matter what game we play, we have to give everything. I’ve only been here less than two weeks, so I’m hungry.
“I will not let anyone off the hook in terms of seeing this season out. It must be the other way around. You have to show in today’s 60 minutes what we showed.
“There we were playing world-class opponents and we were, for me, the better team and we had chances. Now that standard can’t fall. This is the only message, once the dust settles on this, for us in the house.
Conor Gallagher meanwhile is «disappointed» that Chelsea have been unable to take their chances.
“Football is about taking your chances and we didn’t do that today which is disappointing. Sure, we’re going to be gutted, but we played some good stuff today,” Gallagher said.
“That’s basically what makes you win games and we don’t have that right now. But there is definitely a big improvement today compared to our recent performances but you have to score goals to win games and they did that and we didn’t.
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