IT’S VARD LUCK FOR RODGERS

Outfoxed by penalty save LEICESTER 1 SP MOSCOW 1

EUROPA LGE GROUP C

BY JAMES NURSEY JAMIE VARDY missed a penalty as Leicester tried for another heroic comeback.

Goal-ace Vardy’s 74th-minute spot-kick was saved by keeper Aleksandr Selikhov just three minutes after he had come off the bench.

The Foxes – whose hopes of qualifying hang in the balance – had just managed to get themselves on level terms after suffering a setback when Victor Moses headed the Russians in front.

The former Liverpool and Chelsea man stunned the home side with a close-range header against the run of play.

But they were not in front long, Daniel Amartey levelling things up with a 57th-minute header after Ayoze Perez had flicked on a corner.

That was when boss Brendan Rodgers decided enough was enough and it was time to bring on his joker in the pack.

And when Moses was harshly judged to have used too much force on Ademola Lookman, the referee pointed to the spot. Up stepped Vardy to do the business, but the former England striker (above) hit a tame shot low to the keeper’s left and saw him beat it away.

Leicester clearly had no intention of letting Spartak take the initiative like they had done back in Moscow two weeks ago when they led 2-0 before Patson Daka’s four-goal blast secured a 4-3 win.

But the visitors slipped into a back-five whenever danger threatened and you sensed the Foxes could be vulnerable to a sucker punch.

It came five minutes into the second half when Moses steered a header beyond Kasper Schmeichel and into the far corner.

LEICESTER: Schmeichel 7, Amartey 7, Evans 7, Soyuncu 7, Castagne 8, Soumare 8

MOTM (Dewsbury-Hall 83), Perez 6 (Ndidi 58, 6), Tielemans 7, Bertrand 6 (Lookman 58, 7), Daka 6 (Vardy 71, 6), Iheanacho 7. SPARTAK: Selikhov 7, Caufriez 7, Gigot 7, Dzhikiya 7, Ayrton 7, Litvinov 6 (Kutepov 93), Zobnin 6, Ignatov 7 (Lomovitskiy 87), Moses 8, Sobolev 6 (Bakaev 75, 6) Promes 8 (Umyarov, 75, 6)