Chelsea coach Frank Lampard still believes his team has what it takes to match Liverpool toe to toe in the UEFA Super Cup.
The UEFA Super Cup is only restricted two clubs who succeeded last season in winning either the Champions League or the Europa League. Liverpool lifted the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Spurs while Chelsea crushed Arsenal 4-1 to lift the Europa League.
Lampard who lifted 15 trophies with Chelsea during his playing days now feels he can pick up his first managerial silverware on Wednesday agaisnt Liverpool.
“We need to be absolutely ready. It’s a cup that the club desperately wants to win”, Lampard told UEFA.com.
“I’ve never won it, a lot of players in there have never won it, so we have to give it everything. Going up against the team with the quality of Liverpool in a final is as tense as finals can be.”
Speaking philosophically, Lampard added: :You can lose finals: they’re very tough. But what you cannot do is lose it on the premise that we weren’t prepared, or we didn’t have that hunger or desire or everything you need to try and win a game of this magnitude.
“It’s going to be one of my first competitive games as manager of this club. Every player in there needs to be aware of the importance of the game to this club and we have to give everything, because it’s going to be tough.
“It’s going to be tough, but we cannot walk off the pitch and think, ‘Oh, we could’ve done that’ or ‘We missed that opportunity’ or ‘We weren’t quite ready’ or make any excuses for ourselves”.
Chelsea and Liverpool have both touched down in Istanbul and will be expected to line up with their strongest squad.
