Frank Lampard issues rallying cry as Coventry must repeat stats dominance in Sunderland ‘challenge’

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Frank Lampard insists he and his Coventry City players are up for the ‘challenge’ in Tuesday night’s second leg semi at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. 

The Sky Blues will head to Sunderland trailing 2 – 1 to the Black Cats, who sat deep in a very defensive formation at the CBS Arena

Sunderland took advantage of the counter-attack for their opening goal, but Coventry got one back two minutes later with a header from Jack Rudoni. 

Unfortunately, a lapse of judgement saw Coventry’s Milan van Ewijk under-hit a backpass to Ben Wilson, allowing Eliezer Mayenda to slide in, round the goalkeeper and score the winner into an empty net.

Kevin Phillips was left impressed by one ‘awesome’ Sunderland player versus Coventry City.

It was a bitter blow for Coventry, who statistically dominated throughout the game, and Lampard shared his thoughts post-match. 

Frank Lampard talks challenge ahead of their second leg

“It’s half-time, we go again,” the Coventry boss said.

“Football’s not easy, it’s not meant to be easy and anyone who watched the game will get a sense of the game.

“I think the Sunderland players will feel what that game was and they’ll understand it will be another tough game.

“But we are one behind; they’re favourites. That’s fine, no problem, good challenge.”

One Sky Sports pundit has highlighted how Frank Lampard has been brilliant at Coventry City, suggesting his impact extends beyond just this play-off tie.

Lampard knows about making a play-off comeback all too well, back in 2019 he led Derby County to the Championship play-offs where they lost 1-0 to Leeds United in the semi-final first leg at Pride Park.

Regardless, the Rams pulled off a memorable 4-2 victory in the second leg at Elland Road to book their place in the final against Aston Villa.

Coventry dominated the statistics despite losing in the closing minutes 

Despite the result, Coventry dominated when it came to the game’s statistics. 

The home side comfortably had 75% possession, with 14 shots compared to Sunderland’s 10.

Sunderland managed 98 accurate passes whereas Coventry delivered 376.

The only stat that doesn’t quite swing in Coventry’s favour is big chances, the Sky Blues had 1 and Sunderland had 2, which they capitalised on.

Coventry’s superiority, despite the final score, wasn’t lost on Lampard. 

He told BBC Coventry and Warwickshire post-match: “It was a good performance. I don’t need to dwell on the mistakes too much but the performance was good.

“We couldn’t break the deadlock because they defended their box so well, but we did everything we could for large parts of the game without maybe that little end bit.

“But I’m proud of the players, we obviously didn’t get the result we deserved and we didn’t deserve to lose, but we can’t drop our heads and understand there’s loads to play for.”