We looked like the only team going to win, laments Rodgers after late defeat
ZORYA LUHANSK 1 LEICESTER CITY 0
BRENDAN Rodgers felt his much-changed Leicester City side didn’t get what they deserved after losing 1-0 to Zorya Luhansk in Ukraine.
Substitute Allahyar Sayyadmanesh scored six minutes from time to inflict a first defeat on the Foxes in the competition. They remain top of Group G thanks to their head-to-head record against Braga and will finish first if they win at home to AEK Athens in their final group game.
“It’s frustrating overall,” Rodgers said. “I didn’t think the players deserved to lose that at all.
“As the second-half went on, we looked like the only team going to win. The players put so much into it. They were difficult conditions.”
However, a cause for concern for Rodgers will be the injury that forced off Caglar Soyuncu just 16 minutes into his return, following a six-week absence with a groin problem.
Cengiz Under should have then put the visitors ahead when a neat one-two between Harvey Barnes and Kelechi Iheanacho saw the Turkey international played in, but he slipped his shot wide when oneon-one with the goalkeeper.
Visiting keeper Danny Ward
was called into telling action just before the break, diving at full stretch to push away Andrejs Ciganiks’ 25-yard strike, while Harvey Barnes, Under and substitute Luke Thomas all failed to trouble Nikola Vasilj.
Leicester were almost made to pay for their profligacy after 52 minutes when Vladlen Yurchenko sent a header crashing against the crossbar. Zorya enjoyed a good spell of pressure but the Foxes survived.
Rodgers’ side had their best chance to win the game with 10 minutes remaining.
Iheanacho did well to win the ball back on the edge of the area and forced Vasilj to make a parrying save. He pushed the ball into the path of James
Maddison who, from an acute angle, turned the rebound back towards goal, but Vasilj made a brilliant recovery stop.
It proved a huge moment as four minutes later Zorya went ahead. The goal came against the run of play, with Sayyadmanesh sliding in at the far post to convert Vladyslav Kabayev’s pin-point low cross.
Under almost rescued a point for Leicester in injury time, but Vasilj flung himself to his right to claw away his 25-yard strike.