Lampard must re-energise the team to even hold onto Chelsea's tag as best of the rest behind Premier League champions Manchester City and runners-up Liverpool.
'This team is really good and we have invested a lot in it. Now we have to work with that'
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Liverpool feel they beat any team in the world at the moment and will play without fear in the Champions League final against 12-times winners Real Madrid later this month, winger Sadio Mane has said.
Former European champions Steaua Bucharest and English Premier League Southampton suffered shock defeats by Scandinavian teams in Europa League qualifiers on Thursday.
Summary of World Cup qualifiers played across the world on Thursday
Rediff.com brings you a wrap of big stories in pictures with the Best Sports Photos of the Week.
Bayern Munich's party was wrecked by Borussia Moenchengladbach who hit back for a 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, forcing the Bavarians to wait at least a week to clinch a fourth straight Bundesliga title.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
Southampton's 15 million pound ($19.19 million) purchase of Lazio centre back Wesley Hoedt brought the overall spend by England's 20 elite clubs to a record 1.184.9 billion pounds.
Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is loving his duel with Leicester City forward and England team mate Jamie Vardy for the Premier League golden boot this season.
Champions Bayern Munich opened up an eight-point lead in the Bundesliga at the start of the German season's one-month winter break by beating Hanover 96 1-0 on Saturday amid mounting speculation over the future of coach Pep Guardiola.
When Griezmann fired Atletico to victory over Olympique de Marseille in the Europa League final in May it was widely viewed as his last stand for Diego Simeone's side before a move to Barca but they successfully convinced the Frenchman to stay.
'There is no price limit to let him go or a price that we are ready to give in'
The Bundesliga enjoyed a bumper afternoon of stunning goals and penalty drama on Saturday with Hakan Calhanoglu's viciously swerving 40-metre free kick for Hamburg SV the pick of the bunch.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
Bayern Munich came from a goal down at home to beat Ingolstadt 3-1 on Saturday and make it three wins in three Bundesliga matches as they went two points clear at the top. The champions were far less convincing than in their Champions League 5-0 win over Rostov on Tuesday and were caught napping after eight minutes with Paraguayan Dario Lezcano slipping the ball through the legs of Manuel Neuer.
An insatiable Lionel Messi scored for the eighth game in a row in all competitions as La Liga champions Barcelona saw off a gutsy Girona side 2-0 to go five points clear at the top of the standings.
Zinedine Zidane has been reappointed as Real Madrid coach nine months after resigning, replacing Argentine Santiago Solari.
Angel Di Maria delivered a near-perfect performance, scoring two and setting up another as runaway leaders Paris St Germain beat 10-man Olympique de Marseille 3-1 at home on Sunday.
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Manchester United flirted with calamity before coasting into the Europa League last 16 as debutant Marcus Rashford helped them overcome an early blow with two goals in a 5-1 home victory over Midtjylland on Thursday.
Manchester City have signed French central defender Aymeric Laporte from Spanish club Athletic Bilbao, the Premier League leaders said on Tuesday.
Liverpool, Paris St Germain, Besiktas, Dynamo Kiev, Sparta Prague and Villarreal reached the knockout stages of the Europa League on Thursday in contrasting fashions.
Schalke 04 stunned holders Bayern Munich 1-0 with a goal from Spaniard Raul to reach the German Cup final on Wednesday and improve their chances of playing European football next season.
Arsenal will face manager Arsene Wenger's former club Monaco with defending champions Real Madrid pitted against German club Schalke.
Riyad Mahrez, who inspired Leicester City to an extraordinary Premier League title triumph last season, was named African Footballer of the Year on Thursday.
Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane was named player of the month after scoring six goals in four league games.
Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich crushed Freiburg 4-0 on Saturday, recording their 13th successive Bundesliga victory and extending their league unbeaten streak to 46.
Thomas Mueller scored twice as Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich came from a goal down to beat Hanover 3-1 on Saturday and stretch their advantage at the top to 11 points after VfL Wolfsburg slumped to a 1-0 loss at Augsburg.
Surprise leaders Mainz 05 equalled the best ever Bundesliga start with their seventh successive win, beating visitors Hoffenheim 4-2 on Saturday.
A relay gold medallist at the 2014 Commonwealths in Glasgow, the Jamaican said he was busier than ever after last year's retirement and focused, in the sporting arena at least, entirely on his nascent career as a footballer.
Goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who made a mockery of his two-month exile from the starting lineup with a superb individual effort, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic secured an easy win that banished memories of their earlier group stage struggles.
The last time the five times European champions reached this stage of Europe's elite club competition was in 2009 when they went out to Chelsea in a dramatic 7-5 aggregate defeat.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is more worried about avoiding injuries on a poor pitch in Beijing than he is about winning their pre-season derby against Manchester City in the International Champions Cup (ICC). Mourinho criticised the conditions at the Bird's Nest stadium where torrential rain is forecast for next 24 hours. "I think Beijing is unlucky because the pitch is very wet," the manager told reporters on Sunday.
Borussia Moenchengladbach's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League suffered a blow as they were beaten 2-0 at bottom club Hanover 96 on Friday.
Paris St Germain will play Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona were pitted against an unpredictable Napoli, while Chelsea were drawn against Bayern Munich. City, who will be at home in the second leg, have yet to beat the Spanish side with two draws and two defeats in their previous four meetings.
Arsene Wenger withdrew Jack Wilshere from the heat of battle against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday and said he may have to protect the midfielder from his own desire to play.
For the first time in 10 years, four English clubs have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
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