Lampard looking forward to Champions League debut as manager

As a player, Chelsea manager Frank Lampard had several opportunities to play in the Champions League, 107 to be precise, which placed him 29th on the all-time appearances list when he retired. The biggest of those was obviously that May 19th night in Munich in seven years ago, when Lampard captained Chelsea to the pinnacle of club football.

Now back at Stamford Bridge as a manager, Lamps will be taking part in the competition for the first time as a head coach on Tuesday, against Valencia.. And he’s looking forward to it just as much as he used as a player, especially as he will be guiding Chelsea’s young and burgeoning core in it as well.

“But, yeah — the Champions League. It is the top club competition in world football and I’m sure Mason and Tammy and Tomori are all excited for it.

“All the players should be, all players love the Champions League - and I’m looking forward to my debut as a manager.”

Chelsea and Valencia are currently in opposite trajectories in terms of form, with Lampard commanding a 5-2 victory over Wolverhampton over weekend while Valencia are fresh off suffering a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Barcelona — right after dismissing head coach Marcelino.

While Lampard was delighted to see his team get such a good result against a team as tricky as Wolves, who had been on a 16-match unbeaten run at Molineux, he knows that giving up so many goals is not a sustainable path to consistent victories.

“It’s certainly a good feeling to see the team play the way they did. We need more clean sheets, that’s something we continually need to work on.”

-Frank Lampard; Source: Sky Sports

In our last meeting with Valencia back in December 2011 at the Bridge, we were able to not only keep a clean sheet, but also score three goals to qualify for the knockout rounds and start on our path to history. Here is hoping that the record continues — and that our run in the competition ends the same way it did six months after that encounter.