Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard insists that his team have got the players to successfully defend their Champions League title. Last year, Chelsea secured their first Champions league title and made history as they were the first ever London club to lift the coveted European trophy. Though finishing at 6th in the league, Chelsea will get a chance to defend their title when they face Juventus in their first group stage encounter.
Chelsea profited a record £47.3million in prize money but Lampard feels that their team was never given credit for their victory including a famous victory over Spanish giants Barcelona. Talking about the Chelsea’s encounter with Juventus, Lampard said:
“Winning the Champions League last season was that final piece of the jigsaw for many of us because we had won leagues and cups before. But when we came back in the summer, the club, manager and players all had the feeling that we want to move on from that now. The new players that have come in have freshened things up, plus we have characters who are always going to work as hard as ever to try and do more. They are the ingredients that can help our club go on to win it time and time again, like Barcelona have done and the great Manchester United sides have done.
We now need to make it a club with that longevity because if we fade away and people say ‘they won it but no longer care so much’, then what do you become? If you don’t come back with a determined head that is the moment you go downhill. The winner of the Champions League last season doesn’t matter because you start all over again. We must take the confidence of doing that last season and build. It gives you extra strength from having done that as a club.”