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Koulibaly expresses confidence in Chelsea coach Lampard

Koulibaly expresses confidence in Chelsea coach Lampard

Kalidou Koulibaly believes Chelsea interim manager Frank Lampard has what it takes to bring the club out of its misery.

The Blues legend was appointed for a second time after Graham Potter was sacked, but things did not start well for Lampard as Chelsea lost 1-0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers over the weekend, leaving the West London outfit in 11th place in the Premier League log.

Chelsea now face another daunting task when they take on Real Madrid in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.

“We know he [Lampard] is a legend here and he has already trained half of the team,” Koulibaly told BBC Sport Africa.

“The situation is like this for the moment, but in training he has been saying he will support us until the end and help us to be out of this situation.

“We know it is a difficult situation for everybody, including the club, manager and supporters, but we will give everything to get out of this and make them happy.

“Our first objective is to win the games and make our supporters happy.”

Koulibaly also weighed in on the racist abuse Chelsea loanee and Inter Milan forward Romelu Lukaku suffered from Juventus fans in a Coppa Italia semi-final first leg match last week.

The Belgian was sent off for making a hush gesture to Juve fans after he scored a penalty in injury time to level the game 1-1.

Koulibaly was subject to multiple incidents of racist abuse during his eight years at Napoli and said he was proud of Lukaku’s action and has his support.

“I don’t know why it keeps happening,” Koulibaly stated. “There are a few stupid people who think they are allowed to do what they want. Society is not like this and I say to Romelu, I am with him.

“I know this feeling, it happened to me and it is really bad. We have to be proud of him, proud of what he did. He didn’t give any respect to anybody and just expressed his feeling at this moment.

“For me, it was good. Maybe others felt he played on their nerves, but they played with him with those stupid actions against him. I feel sorry for him, but everybody is with him and we will always support him.”

Koulibaly joined Chelsea from Napoli in a fee reportedly worth £33 million and has made 30 competitive appearances, scoring two goals and providing one assist.

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