Brendan Rodgers insists the duo of Kelechi Iheanacho, Ademola Lookman and their Leicester teammates can reach the Europa Conference League final at the expense of Roma despite a 1-1 draw in the first leg at the King Power on Thursday.
Iheanacho and Lookman featured for Rodger’s side in the stalemate on home turf.
Roma took the lead through Lorenzo Pellegrini before the Foxes equalized with Lookman playing a key role in the goal.
Harvey Barnes darted into the area and crossed only for Gianluca Mancini to turn into his own net under pressure from Lookman.
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Why I Appointed Enyimba’s Adegbite As Flying Eagles Captain –Bosso
Leicester will now go to the Stadio Olimpico for the reverse tie and Rodgers remains confident Leicester – in their first European semi-final – can make more history.
“We have no fear, we can go to Rome and play to that level,” Rodgers was quoted on Daily Mail.
“We have a fantastic chance to get to the final. We kept playing our football and the very least we deserved was 1-1. We can go with great confidence to Rome next week.
“I was so pleased with the performance. If you look at the squad and youthfulness of the team, to play at that level I was so pleased.
Rodgers added:”We gave away a sloppy goal, we should defend the throw in better, but I was so pleased with the team, the technical quality and how we imposed our style.
“It was a shame we couldn’t score more goals but it was a great response to going behind. We know we can travel and get the job done and we are really looking forward to that next week.”
And commenting after the draw, Roma coach, Jose Mourinho, described the return leg in Rome final before the final.
Mourinho said: “The second leg is a final date in Rome, that’s the way we look at it. We don’t think about Albania (the final venue), we think about this final we have to play.
“I believe every Romanista will accept that with great motivation. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, for a team like Leicester it doesn’t make much difference for them to play at home or away.
“They have the maturity, class, experience and what the Premier League represents. For us it makes a difference, to play at home with our 70,000.
“In the first half we played like we wanted to play, in the second half we played like they pushed us to play.”
Copyright © 2024 Completesports.com All rights reserved. The information contained in Completesports.com may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of Completesports.com.
COMMENTS