Chelsea take up Madrid challenge hoping for Champions League miracle

Frank Lampard wants to emulate Roberto Di Matteo’s 2012 win but beating the kings of Europe is the toughest assignment

CRUNCH TIE: Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti (right) who has backed Frank Lampard to improve Chelsea's flagging fortunes ahead of the Champions League quarter-final clash between the two clubs. Pic: Peter Powell/PA Wire.

They would have to call it The Miracle of Frank Lampard. It would be the barely plausible tale of the man who was guiding Everton into the Championship landing a new job three months later and, in defiance of all logic, being summoned to rescue the club he knows best before masterminding a series of staggering upsets and ending the campaign as the interim head coach who led Chelsea to the most unlikely of Champions League triumphs.

It would be the latest example of football’s ability to surprise and bewilder. It would be romance over reality, an invocation of the spirit of 2012, the kind of content ripe to be packaged into a 10-part Netflix documentary.