Camp Nou classic No1 for Lampard

Chelsea FC manager Luiz Felipe Scolari described Frank Lampard's delicate chip from the edge of the area against Hull City AFC last Wednesday as "one of the best goals" he has seen. "He's the only player with the quality to score this goal," purred the Brazilian, who ought to know a thing or two after coaching the likes of Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Prolific
Chelsea have often had cause to give thanks for the fact Lampard is a prolific goalscorer. Already hunting down his 120th goal in all competitions for the Blues, he has 16 from midfield in his UEFA Champions League career. Only his team-mate Didier Drogba and Thierry Henry have registered more often in top-flight English football over the last three or four seasons, and on Saturday the 30-year-old celebrated his 100th league strike in the 5-0 victory over Sunderland AFC. It was his previous Premier League effort which drew eulogies from Scolari, but in the European realm the player himself knows exactly which effort deserves recognition as his best.

Spanish stunner
For anyone present when Chelsea travelled to meet FC Barcelona on 31 October 2006, Lampard's first choice will not come as a total surprise, particularly as it was another chip. "My favourite goal was that one I scored at the Camp Nou in the 2-2 draw and it's the one where I chipped the keeper [Victor Valdés]," he told uefa.com. "It's definitely my best, technically, to the extent that I surprised myself and you might try 100 times and not score again. It wasn't the most important match I've ever played but the goal overtook one I scored against [FC] Bayern [München] as my best, partly because I adore the arena in which we were playing. The Camp Nou has a fantastic aura about it and I have high respect for Barcelona as a club. I had no other option and maybe that's when you conjure up your best football. That's why it sticks out to me as my favourite goal."

Acknowledged master
Casting his net further afield to identify his preferred European strike of all time, the England international lights up at the memory of Zinédine Zidane's iconic strike during the 2002 UEFA Champions League final. "It's hard to select one individual goal because when you watch the Champions league you see fantastic goals every Matchday," said Lampard. "But a vital one from possibly my number one player of all time would be the moment Zidane won the Champions League final for Real Madrid [CF] against [Bayer 04] Leverkusen. The technique of hitting the ball out of the air on the volley for the winning goal as he did – it was a crowning moment of his entire career. When I picked up my award as midfielder of last season's Champions League in Monaco recently, I had the great fortune to meet Zidane and, on top of everything else, he's a gentleman. A real class act, just like his goal."

Painful memory
When Lampard leaned forward to nod José Bosingwa's cross past FC Girondins de Bordeaux's Ulrich Ramé on Matchday 1, he was using his head, but also taking the first step on what he is determined will be the long march to the UEFA Champions League final in Rome next May. Lifting the trophy has long been a target, but never more so than after the pain of losing on penalties to Manchester United FC in last season's final. Indeed, it is how you use defeat and failure, and whether they can be turned into the fuel of future successes, that separates the great from the good.

'Determination'
"I don't think I've ever felt such determination to get somewhere and win as I do now about the Champions League," Lampard told uefa.com. "Everyone has ups and downs in a career but the circumstances surrounding that defeat in both footballing and personal terms for me and the nature of the defeat for the club and for John Terry … it was very frustrating. We want to win it even more than we did last year. We came so close to clinching the Champions League but we definitely have the qualities to do it this season and, if we do get to that final again, then you will see a really determined Chelsea trying to win it."