Blues manager Frank Lampard has stated that Chelsea need to be at their best to advance out of the Champions League Group Stages after they were drawn with Ajax, Valencia and Lille.
Although Frank Lampard hasn’t had a great start to life as a Chelsea boss by earning 5 points out of a possible 12, there are tougher tasks ahead as the Champions League approaches soon. Maurizio Sarri helped Chelsea to the Europa League title last term which confirmed their place into the elite European competition.
However, Chelsea has drawn against a few difficult teams in the competition in Group H as they take on Dutch champions Ajax, Ligue 1 runners up Lille and La Liga outfit Valencia. Lampard won the European Cup with Chelsea back in 2012 and was asked whether Chelsea has been handed a difficult draw to which the 41-year-old replied, “Yeah, I think so. I saw the early reports were all the English teams have seemingly had pretty good draws: there never is an easy draw in the Champions League. One team was a semi-finalist last year [Ajax], Valencia is a very strong team always, and dangerous, and in Lille, we have another strong team. It’s certainly no walkover of a group at all, far from it. Quality teams that we’ll have to be fully on guard and be at our best to get through the group because it’s a strong group across the board our group.”
Chelsea had a similar opposition in Valencia back in 2012 when they lifted the Champions League and Lampard was questioned whether he still has fond memories of the game at the Mestalla when he netted against the Spanish club, “Yeah. Happy memories of that but also an awareness of a difficult stadium to go to. Not hostile, but very much behind the home team, very tight, and if you go there and you’re not at it, it will be a particularly difficult game. So I’m very aware of how hard that will be.”
