Frank Lampard angry at missed red card in Real Madrid defeat -“I won’t say what I really think”

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard believes his side should have been playing the final half hour of their quarter-final against Real Madrid against ten man. With around half an hour to go, Eder Militao brought down Trevoh Chalobah while already on a booking, something Lampard felt should have been punished with a second booking.

Militao did not make much contact with Chalobah, but if the referee did adjudge it to be enough to bring Chalobah down, then it could easily have seen yellow for stopping a dangerous attack.

Speaking to FL after the match, Lampard explained that he felt that neither the time-keeping nor the yellow cards were kept on top of.

“I think probably the officials should be aware of that, a high level game, details of minutes. Two minutes in the first half wasn’t enough for me. I’m not going to complain about that after the result.”

“Militao for me, was a second yellow card. I’m not going to say what I really think but in practise at this level you see that yellow card given a lot. That one in the attacking final third when our player is beyond their centre-back and they get brought down. Normally that’s a yellow card which means red, which means half an hour of ‘here we go’. We had to do it at the Bernabeu, they would have had to do it here. It didn’t happen.”

While it will be little consolation for Chelsea, the result is the same for Real Madrid. Militao will be suspended for the first leg of the semi-finals, due to picking up two yellows in the quarter-finals. It adds to the defensive issues they may face against one of Manchester City or Bayern Munich.