Daka rally is just the start
FOUR-GOAL HERO EYES MORE
PATSON DAKA smashed four goals to save Leicester’s Europa League bid – but thinks he still needs to improve.
The £23million summer signing from RB Salzburg swooped with Brendan Rodgers’ men 2-0 down.
His four-goal haul – in a 33-minute spell that straddled half-time – bizarrely made him the club’s joint all-time scorer in Europe, alongside JamieVardy and Harvey Barnes.
What a week it has been for Daka, who also scored in Saturday’s 4-2 win against Manchester United. But he believes he is nowhere near the finished article.
Daka, 23, said: “It has been an amazing few days both for me and the team. I’m just happy to be able to play my part. I’m loving it here at Leicester. I’m just looking forward to improving each and every day because I have a lot of things to improve on.”
Manager Rodgers praised the resilience of his side, saying: “It was all too nice in the first half. I’m satisfied with the result – coming back from 2-0 down – and super satisfied with Daka. That’s a great moment for him.”
Leicester began the match with just one point in Group C and looked to be saying goodbye to their hopes of qualifying when Jordan Larsson, son of Sweden great Henrik, made it 2-0 just before the break.
But Daka gave the Foxes hope when he scored right on half-time after great work by Kelechi Iheanacho. Three minutes into the second half the Zambia striker got the Foxes level with another great finish. Six minutes after that, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans combined brilliantly and Daka did the rest with a cool finish.
And with 12 minutes remaining, Daka seized on a brilliant ball from Maddison to slide home from 18 yards.
Spartak’s Aleksandr Sobolev got his second of the night late on to make things a little too close for comfort for the visitors.
SPARTAK MOSCOW (3-4-3): Maksimenko 5; Rasskazov 5, Gigot 5, Dzhikiya 5; Moses 7, Litvinov 6, Zobnin 6 (Ignatov 69, 5), Ayrton 7; Larsson 7 (Lomovitskiy 90), Bakaev 6 (Promes 69, 5), Sobolev 7. Goals: Sobolev 11, 86, Larsson 44.
LEICESTER (3-4-1-2): Schmeichel 7; Amartey 7, Evans 7 (Vestergaard 83), Soyuncu 7; Ricardo 6 (Albrighton 61, 6), Tielemans 7 (Choudhury 65, 6), Soumare 7, Thomas 7 (Bertrand 83); Maddison 8; Iheanacho 8, Daka 9. Goals: Daka 45, 48, 54, 78.