Sports
Lampard delighted with “first step” after Chelsea end winless run
Chelsea’s interim manager Frank Lampard on Saturday expressed his happiness to see his side finally playing like a team.
The former English Premier League (EPL) champions snapped a nine-match winless run in all competitions with a 3-1 victory at Bournemouth on Saturday.
Chelsea have looked a fractured outfit after a number of arrivals in the last two transfer windows and three different managers this season.
But they showed glimpses of finally gelling together as a unit to end a six-match losing run.
Chelsea are still 11th in the Premier League with four games left.
But Lampard said the win would be a boost as they look to end the season on a high after just their second away victory of the year.
“I’m happy. We came in off the back of a tough run. It’s been a tough year and there is a lot work to do,” he told reporters.
“But the performance and the result in isolation are really good, we deserved to win the game.
“It’s a nice step forward for the lads. To work hard and come to a place that has been very hard for a lot of teams this year… I’m very happy.
“In the modern game, those changes are huge. It’s important with the squad that we have that people feel like they can come in and affect the game.
“We’ve worked towards that and I think every one of them did.”
Lampard said there were still a lot of players finding their feet, especially youngsters, and urged them to “grasp” confidence from the performance.
“Typically at Chelsea, one or two have fed into the group and now we have more. It’s understandable that as a group finding rhythm and confidence can be difficult,” the former Chelsea player added.
“This is a first step. It won’t be plain sailing, but there is talent there and the players need to come together to get us to where we want to be.”
Chelsea’s next game is at home against relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest next weekend.
But tougher tests await with their last three games of the season against top-four sides Manchester City, Manchester United and Newcastle United.(Reuters/NAN)
Liverpool winger, Mohamed Salah, on Saturday, surpassed Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard’s goal record in the Premier League.
The Egyptian international achieved the feat after scoring a brace in Liverpool’s away Premier League 2-0 win against Bournemouth.
The match was played at the Vitality Stadium as Salah netted a penalty in the first half and another goal in the second half.
Salah’s two goals means, the former Chelsea and AS Roma star has now surpassed Lampard as 6th all time goal scorer in Premier League history.
The 32-year-old now has 178 Premier League goals with a goal ahead of Lampard, who now sit in 7th position on the all-time Premier League goal scorers chat.
He is, however, behind the likes of Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole and Sergio Aguero in the goal chat.
Salah has scored 21 goals for the Reds so far this season.
He could leave Liverpool in the summer as he is yet to sign a new deal.
His contract with Arne Slot’s side will expire at the end of the season.
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, on Friday announced the full match schedule for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nine venues will be used across six cities for the continent’s flagship soccer event.
Hosts Morocco will will take on Comoros in the competition’s opening game at the newly-built 69,500-seater Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat on Sunday, December 21.
The country’s capital, Rabat, will have four match venues.
Other host cities are Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech, Fes and Tangier, which will have one match each.
The four quarter-final fixtures will be played at the Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, as well as in Tangier, Marrakech and Agadir.
The semi-finals will be in Rabat and Tangier, with the third-place play-off set for the Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca.
52 matches will be played during the biennial competition.
The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire are the defending champions of the competition.
The draw for this season’s UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off draw has been conducted on Friday.
Eight teams have progressed straight to the round of 16 following the completion of the league phase.
They are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.
They will all return to the competition in March, but others have more football to play before then.
The teams that finished between 9th and 24th, have a two-legged play-off to navigate in February.
FULL KNOCKOUT PHASE PLAY-OFF DRAW
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