Frank Lampard vowed Chelsea "will be back" after a dismal season was effectively ended by Real Madrid's 2-0 Champions League win on Tuesday.
A Rodrygo brace sealed a 4-0 aggregate win to book a place in the semi-finals for title-holders Real Madrid – and eliminated any hopes of Chelsea re-appearing in next season's Champions League.
In fact Chelsea face the bleak prospect of no European football at all; the Blues sit 11th in the Premier League table and are out of the FA Cup. The last time Chelsea failed to qualify for a European club tournament was 2016/17.
The West Londoners have been left counting the cost of an outlay in excess of €600 million on players under new owners and will now have a huge task to balance their books without European football to help boost club coffers.
Chelsea threatened either side of half-time with glorious chances for Marc Cucurella, who saw his close-range effort from Reece James’ cross beaten away by Thibaut Courtois, and N’Golo Kante whose shot was blocked by Eder Militao.
Profligacy has been Chelsea's undoing in a miserable 2022/23 campaign and they were punished again by two simple second-half Rodrygo finishes.
“For 60 minutes of the game, I think you probably saw why I picked the line-up,” said Lampard. “We had big energy, big organisation. We caused Real Madrid a lot of problems.
“The only thing missing from our game was a goal. We had really good chances to do that. But at this level, when you’re in a strong moment, the first half was a strong moment for us.
“Our game was exactly how I wanted it. One or two goals in those 60 minutes changes the face of it. We didn’t do that. At this level, [Real] are so clinical. You saw the result.
“The reality is we’ve been fortunate to have huge success for 20 years. Many clubs in the Premier League would dream of our success in the Champions League and as Premier League winners.
“If this is a year where we’re not where we want to be, and there are probably reasons for the transition. A few years ago we didn’t make the Champions League for the following year, and won the Premier League. We can’t be too short-term with it.
“People will make a lot out of this season for Chelsea because we’ve had so much success. The reality is that this club is going to be back. It will take work. It will take maybe a bit of process. I think the fans appreciated the performance today.”
It is now four defeats out of four for Lampard since he took temporary charge of the team after the sacking of Graham Potter on April 2.
They have scored just one goal in their last five matches – under three different managers – and are in serious danger of finishing outside of the Premier League’s top half for the first time since 1996.
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Real boss Carlo Ancelotti said he thought Chelsea caused his team problems during the first half and at one stage looked like they might be able to salvage the tie.
He praised goalkeeper Courtois for making the crucial intervention against Cucurella late in the period that allowed Real to take control after the break.
“His save at the end of the first half was incredible,” said Ancelotti.
“That could have changed the dynamic of the second half. Getting to half-time 0-0 was very important. Chelsea’s intensity in the first half, they couldn’t have upheld that for 90 minutes.
“It was a complicated game as we predicted. Chelsea gave everything especially in the first half. They caused us a lot of problems. Courtois saved us. We kept it 0-0 till half-time. In the second half, Chelsea lost their intensity and we were able to control the game better.”
