Kelechi Iheanacho saved his Leicester team from what would have been an uphill climb with his equalising goal against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
Leicester City’s second half pressure finally paid off when substitute Kelechi Iheanacho finished emphatically from a Jamie Verdy set up to get the game’s equaliser with 16 minutes left to play.
Villa struck the crossbar through Ezri Konsa’s header while goalkeeper Orjan Nyland’s heroics late on kept James Maddison and Jamie Verdy at bay.
England’s coach Gareth Southgate watched the game from the stands observing the likes of Villa’s Tyrone Mings and Jack Grealish and Leicester’s James Maddison, Ben Chilwel.
Aston Villa spent most of the game on the back foot but had their moments in the game. One of such rare pressure moments gave Villa the lead in the 28th minute.
Speaking after the game, manager Brendan Rodgers was full of praise for the Nigerian striker;
“Kelechi is a big talent. He didn’t play a lot of football at Manchester City and it takes a bit of time to adapt.
“But since I’ve come in his confidence has grown and grown and we believe in him and believe in his talent and this season he has really come to the fore.
“He works so hard every day. He’s either making a goal or scoring a goal now and he works so hard in his pressing game. He was a threat when he came on against Villa and I’m delighted for him.”
Villa manager Dean Smith expects a bigger atmosphere in London for the second leg;
“It should be a good second leg, all square and a boisterous crowd, a full house.
“It wasn’t the performance I wanted, Leicester were the better team but we defended well at times. We have to be honest, they created chances as well. We were loose on the ball tonight, we’ve got to do better.
“I’m certainly content with a draw, just not the performance. We gave away a farcical goal. Ezri Konsa has got brain dazzled. A disappointing goal but it sums up some of our performance on the night. We did get in a lot of tackles and blocks.”
Jack Grealish was the man of the match.