Owen salutes unbelievable England team mate Lampard

Real Madrid striker Michael Owen paid tribute to England colleague Frank Lampard after the midfielder's outstanding performances for Chelsea in the Champions League.

"I don't think I've seen a player in my life improve so much as I have with Frank Lampard," Owen told a news conference on Wednesday.

Lampard, who has played in all but one of Chelsea's games this season, is favourite to scoop honours in English football's player of the year awards voted by soccer writers and professional players over the coming weeks.

"In the last two seasons in particular he has just gone from strength to strength. He seems to be scoring in every game," Owen said.

"Obviously it helps that he's playing in a good team and it helps in that there are people like (Claude) Makelele in behind him as it gives him licence to make whatever run he wants and not be scared of what could go wrong behind him."

"But his second goal in the first leg against Bayern Munich was one of the best goals I've seen in a long, long time."

Lampard scored again in Chelsea's 3-2 defeat against Bayern in the second leg in Munich, a result that was enough to see them through to the semi-finals of the Champions League 6-5 on aggregate.

Owen believes that Lampard and his Chelsea team mates could go all the way and win this season's competition.

"Chelsea have got a very good chance of winning it," he said. "Obviously anyone who's still in the Champions League at this stage has got a very good chance of winning it but especially Chelsea with the talent they've got."

"As I say Frank Lampard is an unbelievable player."

Chelsea will play the winners of Wednesday's match between Owen's former club Liverpool and Juventus in the semi-finals. Liverpool hold a 2-1 advantage after the first leg at Anfield.