Rodgers wants Foxes to learn from heartbreak
Boss Brendan Rodgers wants Leicester City to use their previous heartbreak to reach a historic FA Cup final.
The Foxes are aiming to reach their first final since 1969 when they face Southampton in the last four today.
It is their second semi-final under Rodgers after they suffered a surprise defeat to Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup last season.
Leicester are again favourites versus the Saints and former Celtic boss Rodgers wants the pain against Villa to aid them at Wembley.
“That’s what failure brings if you work the process well, you have to see it as a learning process,” he said. “Any team, any successful individual, you have to go down – unfortunately – that road of failure in order to learn.
“These players showed from that they are able to go on and respond and now we are in another semi-final. You are never guaranteed anything, no matter if your squad is brimming with talent, it’s always a difficult game. We’ll be giving everything and we’re super motivated. I trust the team that we can get a result.” James Maddison, Ayoze Perez and Hamza Choudhury are available after they were dropped for last weekend’s defeat at West Ham for breaching coronavirus regulations having attended a party at Perez’s house.
Nathan Redmond is looking to end a frustrating season on a high for stuttering Southampton.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side kicked on impressively at the start of the 2020-21 season and soared to the Premier League summit in November. Southampton’s first time at the top in 32 years was always going to be short-lived, but the subsequent drop off has been alarming and they head to Wembley reeling from Monday’s 3-0 loss at West Brom. “We’re looking forward to Sunday’s semi-final,” forward Redmond revealed.
“We had aspirations of a cup run this season and we’re well on course with that. We know it’s going to be a difficult game.”
There will be 4,000 local residents and NHS staff in attendance as the FA Cup semi-final acts as a test event, but fans are likely to form a significant part of the 20,000 crowd lined up for next month’s final.