An intense 3-2 defeat by Napoli, which saw Leicester City come from two goals down before ultimately losing out at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Thursday, saw the Foxes exit the UEFA Europa League.
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Leicester City crashed out of the Europa League, following a 3-2 defeat against Napoli. Manager Brendan Rodgers welcomed back Belgium midfielder Youri Tielemans after a calf problem. Ryan Bertrand and Jamie Vardy were the two other changes to the lineup. However, it certainly failed to get the job done as Napoli dominated proceedings from the first minute, with Adam Ounas finishing low into the far corner for 1-0. The Italian outfit soon went two up as Eljif Elmas converted after Andrea Petagna squared to the no.7. There was a glimmer of hope for Leicester as Jonny Evans halved the deficit, by firing home a loose ball. Academy graduate Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall further left a fine impact on proceedings, with a sweet volley that flew into the bottom corner to make it 2-2. However, the defenders failed to effectively negotiate Elmas who fired a low delivery beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to put Napoli back in front for his second of the game. While Leicester City attempted hard to find an equaliser, it was eventually not to be as three added minutes proved not to be enough to find a leveller.
Rodgers sounded very disappointed following the defeat, slamming his defenders.
“I thought [we saw] two sides of our game. Firstly, defensively, we were very disappointing. You can’t need having to score three and four goals to win football matches. It’s just the basics of the games; getting onto the second balls, stopping crosses, running, showing heart in your defending. We know, as well, we have a resilience in the team, but it really eats away at your confidence if you don’t do that side of it. That dirty side. Unfortunately, you’re not going to win games, especially big games, if you don’t do that,” he said.
“Unfortunately for us, it’s costing us. Offensively, we were really bright, really good. There was two sides the game and the defending side, which is fundamentally a really important side, was nowhere near that. You’ve got to do your job. You’ve got to do your job on the field. You’ve got to go where it hurts. As I said, it was great spirit, we know we have that. We know, as well, we have a resilience in the team, but it really eats away at your confidence if you don’t do that side of it – that dirty side. Unfortunately, you’re not going to win games, especially big games, if you don’t do that,” added Rodgers.
“It’s not been good enough. Our objective was to qualify, to win the group, and if we didn’t win it, come second, and we haven’t done that. We could hear them all night. The weather conditions have been horrendous. I’m sure the journey out was really, really tough for them. We wanted to give them something to celebrate out here this evening and unfortunately we didn’t do that. [The Europa Conference League] is not the competition we wanted to be in. We’ll just have to go away and be ready for that when it comes around. Certainly, by the time it comes around, we need to be defending much better,” he concluded.
