Frank Lampard admits two of his Chelsea players found it really tough against Real Madrid

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Frank Lampard says it was a tough evening for Chelsea pair Raheem Sterling and Joao Felix last night.

Chelsea suffered a 2-0 away defeat on Wednesday evening against Real Madrid, which means they trail by a two-goal deficit in the Champions League quarter-finals. It’s going to take something quite special in next week’s second leg to turn things around.

The Blues knew it was going to be tough travelling to Spain for the first leg and put in the kind of performance which highlights their difficulties this season.

Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio were both on the scoresheet for Madrid to put them firmly in control of the quarter-final tie. The task was definitely made easier for them when Ben Chilwell was shown a straight red card in the second-half.

Caretaker boss Lampard set his team up to try counter on their opponents, with Raheem Sterling and Joao Felix both starting up top in a 3-5-2 formation. Unfortunately, both were substituted off during the second-half after challenging outings.

Lampard reflected after the game that Sterling and Felix had difficult nights at the Bernabeu.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, as quoted by Football London, Lampard said: “The game for Raheem, and Joao Felix was a tough match. The system we played defensively, the lads of got a lot of work. Their main threat, sometimes we counter-attack and to protect the ball. It was a difficult night for us at the top end of the pitch. Joao is a big talent, as is Raheem, I’m not here to criticise upon it too much. We’ll go away and analyse it.”

Felix had his big moment to impact the game in the opening few minutes; outside of that, he barely had a kick.

The 23-year-old forward raced up the patch and attempted his shot inside the box, which he could only direct towards Thibaut Courtois in the Madrid net.

Incidentally, Frank Lebouef claims that Felix “switched” off in yesterday’s European clash against Madrid.

Sterling, 28, had his own first-half opportunity in front of goal when he looked to meet a Reece James cross into the box. Unfortunately, Courtois was on hand to make an eye-catching reflex save.