‘He played with a personality and a quality that makes you go, “okay, he can play in pretty much any team”‘: Frank Lampard lauds Mateo Kovacic despite Chelsea’s chastening defeat by Bayern Munich
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has singled out Mateo Kovacic for praise following his side’s humbling defeat by Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
Chelsea were comfortably beaten 3-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie against Bayern, with Serge Gnabry scoring twice and Robert Lewandowski adding a third.
Lampard has since admitted that the Bundesliga giants were simply too good for his young Chelsea side, but he did praise Kovacic – claiming he showed he can play for any team in the world.
Frank Lampard singled out Mateo Kovacic for praise after Chelsea’s 3-0 loss vs Bayern Munich
‘They need to understand the levels that the Champions League is when they get to the knockout stage,’ Lampard said.
‘A lot of the players there today either haven’t played it, played maybe the Europa League, which is a big difference, or played in it a few years ago (but) certainly not at Chelsea to a point where we got to a success of semi-final, final, win it kind of times.
‘I thought there were a couple of performances in our team, namely Kovacic, who played with a personality and a quality that makes you go, “okay, he can play in pretty much any team with that level.”
‘Other than that we need to say tonight wasn’t a night where we showed that, and that’s on an individual to take responsibility.’
Serge Gnabry scored twice and Robert Lewandowski added a third for the Bundesliga giants