‘Did I love the match? No I didn’t love it’: Frank Lampard admits Chelsea ‘got away with one’ after thrilling draw with Valencia in the Champions League
- Frank Lampard admitted he did not enjoy Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Valencia
- His side came from behind to lead thanks to Mateo Kovacic and Christian Pulisic
- Daniel Wass’s late cross found its way past Kepa as the game ended in a draw
- Lampard however refused to blame the Spaniard for the hosts’ late equaliser
Frank Lampard admitted Chelsea got away with one after their helter-skelter Champions League draw with Valencia on Wednesday night.
Kepa saved a second-half penalty before being beaten by a cross as Chelsea came from behind to lead, only to then be hanging on for a 2-2 draw at the end of a crazy 90 minutes in Spain.
Chelsea can now secure passage to the last 16 with victory over Lille at Stamford Bridge in their final Group H game.
Frank Lampard admitted Chelsea ‘got away with one’ in their draw against Valencia
But they could have been facing elimination to the Europa League had Valencia not missed several glorious opportunities at the Mestalla.
‘Did I love the match? No I didn’t love it,’ Lampard said afterwards.
‘Because it hasn’t been many times this season where I have had to say “we kind of got away with that”. Today was one of those because they missed big opportunities.’
Lampard’s side came from a goal down to lead in Valencia but then held on to draw at the end
The Chelsea boss added: ‘That can happen in football. Then it is, have you got the character to see you through to the end? Perhaps we deserved the slices of luck that we got tonight, but I won’t take away from the fact that we have to take some of our opportunities.
‘It could have been 5-5, 6-6 one of those games… we have to be happy with the draw because we gave away too many opportunities. Valencia are a good team and we should be better defensively than we were today. I am happy with the result, it was a really tough match.’
Goals from Mateo Kovacic and Christian Pulisic put Chelsea in command after Carlos Soler’s first-half opener. But their push for the knockout stages will go down to the wire after Daniel Wass’s late equaliser.
Daniel Wass scored Valencia’s equaliser late on after his cross flew over Chelsea’s Kepa
Lampard refused to blame Kepa for Valencia’s second, which came courtesy of a cross that flew over the Chelsea goalkeeper with only eight minutes left.
‘It was certainly a fluke,’ Lampard said before praising his keeper for a ‘fantastic’ penalty save from Daniel Parejo.
Earlier Tammy Abraham was taken off at half-time after hurting his hip when he fell awkwardly.
But Lampard refused to blame his goalkeeper for letting Valencia take a point from the game
The forward will be assessed on Thursday but Chelsea are confident the injury is not as bad as they first feared.
Abraham was limping as he was helped out of the ground by Chelsea staff but the club have yet to make a decision on whether he will be fit enough for this weekend’s clash with West Ham.