Monday, 21 May 2012

Lampard: Chelsea's Champions League win is the crowning moment of my career

UEFA Champions League :Frank Lampard, FC Bayern Muenchen v Chelsea FCThe Blues defeated Bayern Munich in their own Allianz Arena in the competition's final on Saturday, getting a late equaliser from Didier Drogba to cancel out Thomas Muller's opening goal before winning 4-3 on penalties.

"It feels like the crowning moment of my career," he told The Sun.

"The feeling of not winning it for so long almost makes it feel better. I've been here 11 years and I've been waiting for this baby for a long time.

"I've never been so emotional in a game. Players were crying, tears in their eyes. Football can do that to people. It’s the best footballing night of my life — the hour we spent on the pitch with the fans afterwards."

He praised the determination the squad showed to recover from after a difficult first half of the season under new manager Andre Villas-Boas, who was dismissed in March.

"If you had asked me three months ago if we would win this competition, I would have laughed. But we have won the FA Cup and now the Champions League," the England international continued.

"The determination and spirit we have shown have been fantastic. The key players have been there a long time and we want to win, we are determined to win, in the dressing room we have a tough group.

"We struggled earlier in the season, confidence was low, but there is a real determination here, and when times are hard, we dig in.

"We weren't playing good football. We were playing it across the back, we were playing slow, we weren't playing at a good level.

"To become organised and dig in against Barcelona particularly and again [against Bayern Munich], Robbie's got to take a lot of credit and it shows an amazing spirit and group we've got here.

"We dug in and we didn't play beautiful football but we played spirited football that no one can undermine.

"I've never seen a focus in a team like what we travelled here with.

"We carried on from Barcelona. You get a feeling your name is on the cup. I hate to say that before because you look a fool when it doesn’t happen.

"But we’ve had enough bad luck in this competition over the years that people can’t just point at luck this year. Maybe we’ve made our own luck. There are other times when we deserved more than we’ve got.

"I admit when we were trailing 1-0 with about a minute left, I wasn't so sure.

"But once it went to penalties, I thought there was no way we were going to lose. I thought: 'We are going to win this'. It wasn’t going to be a repeat of Moscow, we couldn’t have stood that again."

Didier Drogba got their late equaliser in the final when he headed in from their only corner of the match, and went on to net the winning penalty in the shootout.

Lampard held the Ivorian up among the greats, insisting: "People talk about whether this is his last game for Chelsea, but he has been an absolute hero for this club. 

"He is right up there among the great strikers, who score in finals and in the big games."

Lampard also went on to describe the growing feeling that destiny was on their side after the West London side’s past disappointments in four Champions League semi-finals and a penalty shootout defeat in the final.

The 2008 Champions League final in Moscow saw the Blues defeated on penalties by Manchester United, with captain John Terry missing the penalty that would have won the trophy.

Lampard insisted he drew confidence from goalkeeper Petr Cech, who had saved Arjen Robben’s penalty in extra time and went on to save two in the shoot out from Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger.

He stated: "I had a quiet confidence. Manuel Neuer looks massive in goal. He's a fantastic keeper but Petr Cech has re-announced himself as the best in the world. When you have confidence in your keeper it doesn’t half help with penalty shootouts.

"It's a confidence issue. I remember taking loads in the World Cup in Germany and then missing against Portugal. You can over-think it. Here, I felt we were going to win on penalties, which is strange against a German team."

No comments:

Post a Comment