Evans: Foxes put Euro spot at risk
JONNY EVANS admits Leicester’s stuttering form has put their Champions League return in jeopardy.
Friday night’s 1-0 defeat at bottom club Norwich meant the faltering Foxes have won just one of their last seven Premier League outings.
The 2016 champs knew they would finish the weekend in third place whatever happened, but Evans admitted he feared being caught by a chasing pack also wanting Champions League football.
The centre-back, 32, said: “There’s always that risk. We know that football can change quickly but it is up to us to turn that around. We will have to go away, regroup, analyse the game and see where we can improve.”
For the second game in a row, the Foxes suffered a controversial VAR call – with Kelechi Iheanacho’s (above) fine strike at 0-0 ruled out for handball thanks to a rule that didn’t exist last year.
The previous week Manchester City’s 1-0 victory at the King Power Stadium featured a penalty awarded to the visitors for handball that seemed identical to one not given for Leicester. But Evans, a three-time Premier League winner with Manchester United, wasn’t prepared to hide behind that.
He said: “We can’t keep talking about VAR decisions. We have to look at our overall performance and how we are playing ourselves in the game.
“We know we weren’t good enough, simple as that.
“It was going to be a one-goal game – whoever got the goal was going to win and Norwich got the goal. We didn’t play well.”
Iheanacho, up front for the injured Jamie Vardy, curled a superb shot past Canaries keeper Tim Krul early in the second half, but replays showed the ball bounced on a hand in the run-up.
It wasn’t deliberate, but now attackers are automatically punished.
Evans said: “It’s the rule. You are told the rules at the start of the season. We knew, if it hit his hand, it would be disallowed.
“We had one at the start of the season with Wolves – a similar situation.
“It has been a consistent thing that’s been brought in, so we will just deal with it.”
The win, courtesy of Jamal Lewis’ fine strike on 70 minutes, was only Norwich’s fifth this term.