The Chelsea boss was full or praise for the striker, who continued his strong run of form
Frank Lampard has hailed Olivier Giroud for scoring another important goal after the French star fired Chelsea to a win over Norwich on Tuesday.
Giroud scored the lone goal in the 1-0 victory, one which kept Chelsea in the race for a top-four spot.
After being beaten 3-0 by Sheffield United last time out, Chelsea are in a battle with Leicester, Manchester United and Wolves to claim the final two Champions League spots with just several games remaining in the Premier League season.
Knowing what’s at stake, Chelsea will need results to remain in the hunt, and Lampard praised Giroud’s contribution on Tuesday, hailing the French striker for taking advantage of his time on the pitch.
“He is always going to give you a desire to get in there for the team,” Lampard told Sky Sports. “He had a few half chances in the central area. That is what you have to do when he is in the team – use his attributes.
“He has scored important goals. He has never given me a problem, always trained well. His professionalism is always good.”
The World Cup-winning forward has had to deal with time out of the starting XI this season, with Giroud making only 20 total appearances this season while scoring seven goals.
Giroud made 45 appearances last season, his first full campaign with Chelsea, scoring 13 times in all competitions.
Now back in the team following a good run of form, Giroud says he is still finding his confidence in front of goal despite a haul of three goals in four matches.
“We needed to be patient and move the ball quick against a team who play a deep block,” he said. “We created a lot of chances but it was important to score before half-time. We should have scored more goals as we had a lot of possession. The team was a bit under pressure also because we know we needed the win definitely so we are happy.
“I missed some things some times that I wouldn’t miss usually but maybe I lost a bit of confidence. My desire to score was bigger though so I tried to stay focused. It was a great cross from Christian [Pulisic] so I scored the header. I will always believe and work hard. I am very pleased with the goal and it helped the team win the game.
“We really wanted to bounce back and we played a good team against Sheffield United. We have done mistakes obviously so we tried to not do it again. This determination to do well tonight was very high. The most important thing was the three points so we feel relief now.”
Chelsea are set to face Manchester United on Sunday in a match that could determine their fate this season before a difficult clash with Liverpool three days later.
The Blues will then conclude the season with a match against Wolves at Stamford Bridge.
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