Rodgers endures more woe after Czechs shock out-of-sorts Leicester
Slavia Prague win 2-0 on agg
The knockout stages of the Europa League continue to prove painful experiences for Brendan Rodgers.
He has now suffered defeat in the last 32 five times as a manager and will pass his second anniversary in charge of Leicester today with a sense of disappointment as he reflects on the end of their European excursions. On four previous attempts he had endured frustration at this stage, twice with Liverpool and twice with Celtic, now adding a fifth after an underwhelming home performance against Slavia Prague.
Lukas Provod and Abdallah Sima scored in the second half to secure the Czech champions’ progress to the last 16, sentencing Leicester to only their second defeat of the year.
Without the guile and invention of midfielder James Maddison, who was absent due to a recurrence of a hip injury, Leicester failed to create a decent chance all night. Rodgers will also point to other injuries to key players, including James Justin, Wesley Fofana and Dennis Praet, while Kelechi Iheanacho was suspended, but this was still a tame performance.
He said: “We’re disappointed to be out but we know we weren’t good enough. I take responsibility for the team I’ve picked. I picked a team I felt could win the game but the best team won.
“I don’t want to give too many excuses. [We had] players not available tonight at the top end of the field. However I still expected us to show up more. They’ll learn from it and it’s a big learning curve.
“We’ve enjoyed the European experience this year and we’ll now move on from this. We’ll go away and reflect on it honestly and focus on the two competitions we’re still in hoping to succeed.”
It was always going to be a tricky night against a well-drilled, resilient and physical outfit, but failure to score over two legs was inexcusable.
While Maddison was absent, Harvey Barnes also started on the bench, and Jamie Vardy had one of those agonising nights when he was isolated for long periods in the final third.
Slavia grew into the game and with noisy backing from the travelling contingent in the directors’ box, there was a warning for Leicester shortly before the break when Jan Kuchta headed wide from 12 yards.
The opening goal had a whiff of inevitability about it and came in the 49th minute – the first goal in 139 minutes of the tie across two legs. It came from the left flank, with Nicolae Stanciu delivering a fine cross into the penalty area to find Provod unmarked and he swept the ball home from six yards out.
The tie was drifting away from Leicester, who now needed to score two goals.
Rodgers gambled by making three substitutions, bringing on Barnes, Ricardo Pereira and Timothy Castagne in an attempt to swing the momentum away from Slavia.
The expected bombardment of pressure never happened and Sima killed off the match 11 minutes from time by drilling a 25-yard shot into the bottom corner.
Leicester City (4-2-3-1) Schmeichel 6; Amartey 5 (Pereira 61), Evans 6, Soyuncu 4, Thomas 5; Ndidi 5, Choudhury 5 (Barnes 61); Under 5 (Tavares 80), Tielemans 5, Albrighton 5 (Castagne 61); Vardy 5.
Subs Ward (g), Jakupovic (g), Mendy, Fuchs, Leshabela, Flynn. Booked Soyuncu, Barnes.
Slavia Prague (4-2-3-1) Kolar 6; Bah 6, Kudela 7, Zima 7, Boril 6; Hromada 6 (Lingr 74), Provod 7; Sima 8, Stanciu 7 (Dorley 69), Olayinka 7; Kuchta 6 (Masopust 84).
Subs Stejskal (g), Kovar (g), Holes, Traore, Lingr, Visinsky.
Booked Zima, Provod, Kolar.
Referee Serdar Gozubuyuk (Holland).