Frank Lampard delighted with the team’s mentality to snatch the late winner against Rennes in the Champions League

Chelsea have reached the knockout stage of the Champions League, after a 2-1 victory against Rennes sealed by the late goal of Olivier Giroud. The Champions League drama is a story as old as time for Chelsea, and tonight once again brought a lot of late twists.

The match started very well for Chelsea, with the Blues looking for an easy passage to the next round. Mason Mount found Callum Hudson-Odoi with a superb pass, which finished with aplomb. It was reminiscent of the days when Cesc Fàbregas played balls for Diego Costa. Mount’s assist today was his first in the Champions League, hopefully the first of many as he looks to emulate the legendary Chelsea Old Guard.

Unfortunately for us, Rennes started to grow in the game, and ended the first half with very strong attacking moments. The second half continued to be more or less the same, Rennes striker Serhou Guirassy becoming more and more of a nuisance for Chelsea’s back line.

Édouard Mendy would concede his first Champions League goal for Chelsea to his former teammate in the 85th minute, Guirassy heading into a corner, rising between Kurt Zouma and Thiago Silva.

Frank Lampard was delighted with his team’s mentality of continuing after conceding at the end of the second half.

“I thought it showed a lot and that was one of the things that made me happy. The first 30 minutes I thought we played really well, then the attitude of the players who went through difficult times. Lots of turns tonight, I know they scored with one, but a lot of defense against a great physical team. And then the reaction which is always easy to close shop.

“We knew that a draw wasn’t the worst result, but having players who have a push and the desire to turn things around shows a bit of the strength of the squad. But it must continue. We cannot pretend that this is a one-time result.

“When I looked at the players who came into the game, Oli got the goal, Hakim Ziyech was fantastic, and Kai and N’Golo. Then you see people not starting, some needed a rest but making an impact and helping us win the game and hopefully that strengthens us as a group as a whole.

To counter growing pressure from Rennes, Lampard made key replacements, including Olivier Giroud, N’Golo Kante and Hakim Ziyech. Giroud’s impact on the game was his desire to continue in the box, after Kanté’s crucial interception, and Ziyech’s perfect pass to Timo Werner, whose deflected shot was attacked by Giroud for the winning goal.

Kanté and Ziyech brought new life and fresh legs to Chelsea’s performance, impacting both ends of the pitch. Chelsea’s studded bench proved too much to deal with for Rennes, as Lampard’s substitutions once again proved to be the difference between a disappointing draw and a ticket to the round of 16.

Overall, Lampard is starting to see his side take impressive form, with six straight wins in all competitions and unbeaten since the disappointing penalty loss to Tottenham in the League Cup in late September.

Perhaps the best trend of all is the sense of skill, calm and solidarity in Chelsea’s defense of late, aided by the emergence of Mendy in goal and the synergy between Kurt Zouma and Thiago Silva.

“We can only work on ourselves. If you work on your performance and the team works together and the new players are brought in and we work on the training ground and prepare well, I hope the performance will come and I think we will are certainly improved very quickly at the start of the season. . So I hope the results will follow.

“When we’re effective at both ends of the pitch, which I felt last season, sometimes we weren’t. We had games where we dominated possession in the game, but maybe we didn’t take the chances and won it. Then perhaps we conceded freely when we had not conceded many chances.

“Now we see a bit more of a ruthless nature for us when it comes to how we can continue to try and keep the sheets clean. It’s not always possible, as we saw tonight, but defend well and score goals at the other end. But there is still a lot of work to be done. We are certainly not the finished article. It would have been impossible to make the changes we made this summer and expect everything right away. This is the reason why we must work and will continue to do so.

– Frank Lampard, source: Football.London

The next match for Chelsea in the Champions League is Sevilla next Wednesday, which will likely decide who wins Group E.