It was a night that promised much for Chelsea Football Club, but in the end they delivered very little against Real Madrid at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final.
Their cause wasn’t helped by the second-half sending off of Ben Chilwell, but in truth the Blues were toothless in attack apart from some initial bursts from Joao Felix and Raheem Sterling.
At 2-0 down, the west Londoners are just about still in the tie, and if they can score first in the second leg and ignite the Stamford Bridge atmosphere, there’s an outside chance that they can make it into the semi-finals again.
It would be some accomplishment for Frank Lampard if he’s able to mastermind such a victory, though they’ll have to do much better than they have during his first couple of games in charge.
His side have failed to score under his stewardship so far this time around, and that’ll need to change quickly.
4 – Chelsea have failed to score in four consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since December 1993. Blank. pic.twitter.com/EHDdblMRPr
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 12, 2023
What’s more, Chelsea also hadn’t scored in the two games prior to Lampard taking over, meaning that they’ve gone four games in all competitions without registering a goal – something that last happened 30 years ago in 1993, according to Opta Joe on Twitter.
If he’s trying to throw his hat into the ring for the full-time position, Lampard will be hoping to get some positive results against Brighton at the weekend and in the return against Real next Tuesday.
Were things still not going as planned by then, this entire experiment could end up with everyone having egg on their faces.