Valencia secured the win with a goal 14 minutes from time as the Blues were unable to score despite creating numerous chances. The best of those came from the penalty spot late in the game as substitute Ross Barkley struck the top of the crossbar.

Lampard felt the defeat was a harsh lesson for his young side in the pitfalls of top-level European football but claimed there were still positives he could take from the performance.

‘We probably should have got the win, or at least a draw,’ he said after the game.

‘We created enough good chances, had a penalty and then conceded from one shot on target. It’s a harsh lesson of Champions League football because we played pretty well but lost.

‘The good news is we’ve got five more games left in the group but we should have got more tonight.’

Lampard offered an insight into Mason Mount’s early withdrawal

‘He’s got an ankle injury but we don’t know how bad it is. We’ll have to assess it in the next 48 hours to see the scale of the injury.

'It was a shame because he started the game well and it meant we had to make the change early on.’

The boss revealed there was no issue with Barkley having the late penalty as he is the spot-kick taker when on the field.

‘Ross is the penalty taker. He’s scored a couple in pre-season and he’s been the taker whenever he’s started or come on in games. I don’t know what the conversation was but Willian and Jorginho were the penalty takers from the start and Ross was once he came on.’

Lampard finished by saying a matchday one defeat makes the group difficult but he expects every team to drop points.

‘The reality of losing the first game at home makes the rest of the games more important, particularly when they come next back-to-back away from home [Lille and Ajax]. We need to have a strong focus on getting a result in one of those games now.

‘It’s still a group I think teams will take points off each other because all the teams are strong.’