Lampard's late relief
Tuesday, 11 September, 2012
Midfielder pleased to see 87th-minute penalty hit the back of the net
Frank Lampard spoke of his relief after seeing his late spot-kick fly past Ukraine goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov to earn England a World Cup qualifying point at Wembley.
The midfielder smashed home an 87th-minute penalty after Yevgen Khacheridi was penalised for a handball inside the box.
Lampard's strike levelled Yevhen Konoplyanka's wonderful first-half opener and ensured the Three Lions took a share of the spoils.
He said: “It’s a bit nerve-wracking near the end of the game. When you’ve taken one the other day you know the goalkeeper’s watched it as well, but I was pleased to see it hit the back of the net.
“We had a goal disallowed, we hit the post, so in the end we showed great character to get that point. Getting a point is a good result considering we were a goal down with ten minutes to go.”
The Chelsea man also revealed that he and his fellow team-mates were mystified by the decision to disallow Jermain Defoe’s goal.
“No, no-one does,” he replied when asked whether he knew why the goal was ruled out.
“I thought he’d pulled it back for a free-kick for us. It wasn’t a foul at all.”