Rodgers: The Players Showed Their Unity

- Brendan Rodgers discusses Leicester City's 2-1 win over AEK Athens on Thursday night
- The Foxes manager was delighted by the contributions of several players who came into the XI
- Hamza Choudhury scored City's second, after a Jamie Vardy penalty, on his full European debut
- Rodgers also highlighted the efforts of several others at Athens Olympic Stadium

Goals from Jamie Vardy, from the penalty spot, and Hamza Choudhury, on his full European debut, ultimately contributed to a 2-1 success for the Foxes, with Muamer Tanković netting for AEK.

After making five changes ahead of the game from the 1-0 Premier League victory at Arsenal, Rodgers was delighted with the contributions of the new faces in City's starting XI.

One of those players was Academy graduate Choudhury, whose composed finish just before half-time eventually ended up being the winner for the Foxes in Athens.

"Brilliant, I thought it was a really, really good finish," Rodgers told LCFC TV at full-time. "He's got himself into a really good position and he ends up scoring the winning goal.

"He was actually close, as well, in the second half, where he nearly got in, so I'm delighted for him. We need all the players that are involved in the squad to come in.

"I thought Marc Albrighton was excellent as well, Big Wes (Wes Morgan) is not playing so much, but he was a man mountain in there for us this evening, a colossal performance, really aggressive and strong.

"James Justin again, he just plays the games and [it was] not his best performance, but he's so mentally strong and he plays in so many different positions for me and does amazing each time.

"We're just delighted with the result. It was always going to be difficult to play how we've played before in a lot of games where it's a bit faster and a [there's] bit more combinations.

"Tonight, it was a case of: get the goals, be strong defensively and get the win, so six out of six is a very good start for us."

Leicester's game management was another pleasing aspect for the Northern Irishman, who highlighted the contribution of the entire squad in Greece.

"We had to manage the game," he explained. "There's players playing not so many games, but we felt that [we wanted to] just stabilise the game, bringing Papy [Mendy] in gives up control.

"Dennis [Praet] on the side gives us that control and work-rate, so I thought they were very good. Kels (Kelechi Iheanacho) coming on for Jamie [Vardy]... Jamie, for 70-odd minutes, ran his heart out.

"He creates the goal and is always a threat, but Kels comes in and makes a big contribution and Luke Thomas, who comes in... we'd planned that before when Jonny [Evans] wasn't available.

"We can't afford to lose another defender. Christian [Fuchs] played 45 minutes and then Luke came in and I thought he did very well.

"He put in a great cross where Vards nearly scores at the beginning of the [second] half, so all in all, very much a squad result tonight. They really showed their unity, and I'm delighted for them."