The Blues had several good chances to go ahead on the night, but we were punished for our profligacy on the hour when Rodrygo put the European champions in front. The Brazilian added a second before the end to ensure an emphatic aggregate victory for Real, but despite the final outcome Lampard could still be pleased with some aspects of our performance.

‘We played really well for 60 minutes,’ said Lampard.

'I picked a team that was the most form team individually, and the fittest team in terms of what this game was going to ask of us, and they showed they could compete with Real Madrid.

‘Once they got the goal, to make it 3-0 on aggregate, then of course we had to make some changes to go and chase the tie, and maybe how you saw the game pan out from there was possibly expected, but for 60 minutes or so I thought we were really good.

‘Having said that, at this level when you create some really good chances as we did, then you simply have to take them.

‘I’m not one for praising performances too much when we’ve lost, but when you consider where we are and where we’ve been, there were some positives to take for sure.

‘We had big energy, big organisation in the team, caused Real Madrid a lot of problems. The only thing that was missing from our game was a goal. Our game was exactly how I wanted it, and one goal or two goals in that 60 minutes changes the face of the tie. We didn’t do that and they’re so clinical, you saw the result.’

The caretaker manager felt Real should have gone down to 10 men at 0-0

‘Militao for me was a second yellow card. At this level we see yellow cards given a lot. That one in the attacking final third with our player beyond their centre-back, and gets brought down, normally that’s a yellow card, which means red, which means half-an-hour of here we go.

‘That is what we had to do in the Bernabeu, maybe that’s what they would have had to have done here, but it didn’t happen.’

Lampard believes his players have set a benchmark for the rest of this season

‘We’ve played against world-class opposition tonight and we’ve been the better side for 60 minutes or so. For me, it’s important now that we don’t allow that standard to drop. That’s the one message for us to relay in-house once the dust settles on this game.

‘I’ve been here two weeks now and I’m really hungry to do my best for this club, for my club, and I certainly won’t be letting anyone take their foot off.

‘This is a club that’s used to going further in this competition and tonight, it wasn’t our night. But it’s important the lads learn from this and understand what it’s like and what’s needed at this level.

Lampard finishing by looking forward

‘The next step is day off tomorrow, back to work Thursday, get working towards Brentford. People will make a lot about this season for Chelsea because we’ve had so much success.

‘The reality is this club is going to be back. It will take work and a bit of process, and the fans appreciated the performance today. We have to latch on to that and get results and performances until the end of the season, and then go again next year.’