LONDON, April 13 - Playmaker Frank Lampard
believes no one can begrudge Chelsea a place in their second
successive Champions League semi-finals because they have done
it the hard way.
"People said last year we were doing it the easy way, that
the best teams had gone out as we got to the semi-finals," said
Lampard after Chelsea beat Bayern Munich 6-5 on aggregate
despite losing the second leg 3-2 in Germany on Tuesday.
"This year we are doing it the hard route. We have beaten
Barcelona and Bayern (in consecutive rounds)."
Lampard said last season's disappointing 5-3 semi-final
defeat by eventual runners-up Monaco, who were down to 10 men
when they scored two late goals to win the first leg 3-1, still
haunts the London club.
"The manner of losing to Monaco in the semi-finals last year
is still with us," said the England midfielder. "The manner of
the defeat was a huge disappointment."
The good news for Chelsea is they will have manager Jose
Mourinho back on the bench for the clash with Liverpool or
Juventus in the last four.
The Portuguese coach was banned from the dugout for the two
games with Bayern after European soccer's governing body UEFA
found Chelsea guilty of disrepute in the first knockout round
against Barcelona.
NO PRIVACY
Mourinho briefly sat in the stands in Munich before fleeing
to his hotel to witness events from afar.
"I think his idea was to watch the match from the stands but
he felt he didn't have the privacy to do it so he went back to
the hotel," said fitness coach Rui Faria.
Chelsea took a 1-0 lead on Tuesday with a deflected strike
from Lampard, scorer of two goals in the 4-2 first leg win.
A Claudio Pizarro equaliser briefly put them under pressure
before Didier Drogba's header left Bayern with 10 minutes to
score three goals.
Although Chelsea eventually lost the match, with Bayern
netting through Paolo Guerrero in the 90th minute and Mehmet
Scholl four minutes into injury-time, their place in the
semi-finals was never really in doubt.
Midfielder Joe Cole, who had a hand in both goals in Munich,
says Chelsea would now prefer to face Liverpool, who defend a
2-1 lead in the second leg against Juventus in Turin later on
Wednesday.
"We would love to see Liverpool go through," said Cole. "The
atmosphere of an all-English occasion would be brilliant and
some of us have a lot of friends in the Liverpool team."