Lampard defiant after defeat

He said: "We've got to patch ourselves up but sometimes these situations work in your favour, as people dig even deeper to help the team. Paulo Ferreira and Glen Johnson have both covered at left-back and Ricardo Carvalho is back from injury so we've got more than enough defenders.

"It's a good thing that we've got such a big game to get this defeat out of our system. We're playing possibly the best team in Europe at the minute, along with ourselves, Juventus and AC Milan, so it's a massive test that the whole world will be watching. We're confident we can get through the tie."

Lampard also sprang to the defence of Mourinho, whose decision to make three substitutions at half-time played a big part in Chelsea's first defeat in 16 games. Bridge's enforced departure after 48 minutes forced the visitors to play the majority of the second half with 10 men, and they were reduced to nine following Carlo Cudicini's injury-time sending off, but Lampard insists his manager was right to gamble.

He added: "You can say it was a gamble by the manager to make three changes, but it could have been a gamble that won us the game. If we'd have stayed with 11 men we'd have probably won it and nobody could know that Bridgey was going to go down like that. Without that freak injury it could've paid off. At half-time there was a definite belief we could go on and win the game and we tried to do that."

Meanwhile, AC Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko will require surgery to fix a fractured cheekbone.

The Italian club said it was not clear how long the Ukraine international would be sidelined, but he will certainly miss Wednesday's Champions League match against Manchester United and next Sunday's derby with crosstown rival Inter Milan.

Shevchenko, recently named Europe's best player of 2004, was injured during the first half of Milan's Serie A match against Cagliari, which Milan won 1-0.