Matchday Live Talking Points: Maddison, Vardy & Qualification Secured
- Jamie Vardy scored an injury-time leveller in Portugal to send Leicester City through to the knockout stages
- SC Braga looked to have won the game late on themselves before City's third equaliser of the game in the UEFA Europa League tie
- Gerry Taggart, Tony Cottee and Matt Elliott were all on hand to reflect on Thursday evening's thrilling encounter
- The trio of Matchday Live guests were live on air on LCFC Radio post-match to review the result
Tony Cottee, Gerry Taggart and Matt Elliott all joined Dan Bates on LCFC Radio after the full-time whistle sounded over in Braga, to dissect a thrilling encounter which ended with Leicester qualifying for the Round of 32 stage with two Group G games to spare.
Two Academy graduates were on the scoresheet to twice equalise for the Foxes, in Harvey Barnes and Luke Thomas, but it was one of the old guard who stole the headlines at the end, when substitute Jamie Vardy struck in the fifth minute of added time.
That dramatic late leveller, and much more, was the topic of conversation amongst the panel...
A topsy-turvy game
Gerry Taggart said: "It was a remarkable end to the game and it was a remarkable start to the game. Two goals in five minutes at the beginning, two goals in five minutes at the end and pretty tame during the middle. A great game of football, a great spectacle and it was that man again to the rescue, Jamie Vardy. You could just see the delight on his face as that equaliser goes in and it just shows how important that man is to the Football Club, yet again coming up with the goods when it matters. I said it before the game, any positive result would be a good result and that turned out to be the case. The other result has gone Leicester's way so this is just the icing on the cake."
Braga came close
Matt Elliott said: "It was right on the deadline and it couldn't have come at a better moment. Braga won't be devastated but they'll be hugely disappointed because they let the lead slip and then they got themselves back in front with just minutes to go and you think: 'Surely that's it?' and they've got some sort of revenge for the performance and performance here at King Power Stadium, but it wasn't to be for them unfortunately."
Tactical nous
Tony Cottee said: "Both substitutions and also the two substitutions at half-time as well, they made the difference and helped the team. You have a decision, do you stick with the same team or do you make the changes? The one thing about Brendan [Rodgers], aside from being a fantastic manager and coach, I think he likes to make his to substitutions and invariably he gets the substitutions right. It was very much a case of sending the cavalry on to get back into the game and get what we all hoped would be a really vital point, particularly with how the result was going in the other game. The manager deserves great credit for making the changes."
The equaliser
Gerry Taggart said: "You can see why there's been question marks around Braga's defence in the lead up to this game and we saw it tonight. They were sloppy at times, but that wasn't the case for Vardy's goal, that was just about pure persistence from Vardy. Getting down the channel, recycling the ball and then eventually getting its way to Marc Albrighton, who knows exactly what he wants to do - get the ball out of his feet. He knows where Vardy is and he just rolls that low cross in, back post, he knows Vardy is going to be there, because how many times have we seen it? Jamie, unmarked at the back post, you know he's just going to finish that, he's not missing those for sure."
Maddison & Vardy's contributions
Tony Cottee said: "When you get sent on as a sub, sometimes it's difficult. You come on, you're cold, you're not at the pace of the game, but the two that came on together, [James] Maddison and [Jamie] Vardy, those two just came into the game and straight away. To me, it shows the quality of the two players, how good they are, because they immediately made things happen. Maddison's passing was fantastic and Jamie just gives the team something different, he really does. I'm pleased for him at the end, he got the goal and it was a great game of football but I think the fair result was a draw."
Qualification secured
Matt Elliott said: "It's lovely to get it done and dusted, isn't it? It's not quite in the fashion intended because Leicester, quite understandably to a degree, weren't at their best tonight and Jamie [Vardy] has got them out of jail a little bit and turned up with the goods. He's undeniable, what an asset he is to have at the Club and they've done the job. Primarily, qualification was the target and they've achieved that. They've done it in fine style as well, as quick as possible in four games. We're yet to determine whether they will actually go on and win the group, you would strongly suspect that they will, with the two remaining games that they've got."