City On The Sofa Talking Points: An Evenly-Matched Game & Leicester’s First Half Performance
- City On The Sofa guests Gerry Taggart, Steve Walsh and Iwan Roberts reflect on Leicester City’s clash with Chelsea
- City’s Emirates FA Cup campaign came to an end at the quarter-final stage
- The Foxes were edged 1-0 by Frank Lampard’s side, with Ross Barkley scoring the decisive goal at King Power Stadium
City were narrowly beaten in the quarter-finals of the Emirates FA Cup after Ross Barkley came off the bench to net the winning goal on Filbert Way.
The Foxes went close through Wilfred Ndidi, Jonny Evans, Youri Tielemans and Çağlar Söyüncü, but couldn’t breach Chelsea’s back line and bowed out of the competition.
Speaking on City On The Sofa after the full-time whistle, Walsh, Taggart and Roberts were on hand to analyse City’s loss to the London outfit.
An evenly-matched game
Gerry Taggart said: “The difference was one bit of Chelsea quality, that ball from Willian and the finish from Barkley. Leicester just couldn’t finish their chances. Chelsea are always going to get into the game, they’re a quality side and it’s hard to keep them out. It was an evenly-matched game, and in the end it boiled down to one finish.”
Willian’s pin-point delivery
Steve Walsh said: “At the end of the day, Willian is a terrific player and as soon as you give him that space, he’ll put a good ball in. It’s crucial to not allow him to get in that situation, and unfortunately, he put a good ball in and found Ross Barkley. Chelsea forced errors out of Leicester City, and they came away with the win.”
Lampard’s changes paid off
Iwan Roberts said: “You have to take your hat off to Frank Lampard because the hardest thing to do, especially as a new coach, is to get your substitutes right. You could see they were being overrun in midfield, and he changed things. If he didn’t there would have been only one result, but the changes that he made at half-time won Chelsea the game.”
A positive first half
Gerry Taggart said: “That’s what we have come to expect from Leicester – a high press and putting teams on the back foot. It’s important that Brendan stresses that to the players in the build-up to the game, and that first-half performance was probably the best we’ve seen so far since the restart.”
One game at a time
Steve Walsh said: “Leicester got a second wind and when you analyse that, they’ll be gutted because they deserved something out of the game. They played well enough to at least draw that match. We’re out of the FA Cup, but a few more wins in the league and it’ll be a very good season. Let’s take one game at time and see where we get to.”
Finish the season well
Iwan Roberts said: "It'll be a tough game at Everton on Wednesday, but there are seven games to go and they're still in a good position in the Premier League table. It's been a great season, and they just need to go and finish the season off now."