I Embrace Every Moment, Says Thomas

- Leicester City host Rennes in the UEFA Europa Conference League on Thursday (8pm kick-off)
- Left-back Luke Thomas was on media duties ahead of the round of 16 tie
- The Academy graduate outlined the pride he feels to represent the Foxes in Europe
- He also discusses his playing relationship with Luke Thomas and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

French side Rennes are next up for the Foxes in a two-legged last-16 tie in the UEFA Europa Conference League, starting on Filbert Way this Thursday (8pm kick-off). Thomas, on the other hand, has made 26 appearances in all competitions this term and continues to impress on the left channel.

The Syston-based 20-year-old, who has won the Emirates FA Cup and the FA Community Shield with his boyhood team over recent seasons, is excited by the prospect of representing them again in the latter stages of a European cup competition.

"It’s obviously a very special moment for me," Thomas told the media. "Since I came in, I’ve played so many games so far, it’s been great for my family and friends to watch that dream come true for me. I just embrace every moment that I get on the pitch and hopefully there’ll be many more to come.

"We feel like, in this round, it’s probably one of the toughest draws we could get. We know how well they’re doing in the league.

"They’re fourth in the league, so that proves how well they’re doing. We know it’s going to be a tough challenge, but we know the qualities that we have in the team and hopefully we can show them over the two legs and go through to the next round. 

'With how the season’s gone so far, I think that maybe makes it an even bigger competition for us at this point in time. We know (winning the trophy) gets us into the Europa League next season and that’s one of our main objectives for the rest of the season.

"Being in Europe is one of the best feelings, it’s great to be in games on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so we want to be in it again and show what we have in the rest of this competition. We’ll just keep going and hopefully we’ll get through this round and go onto the next one."

Over recent weeks, City have won four of five matches in all formats, with the combination play of Thomas and his fellow Academy graduates down the left channel proving to be one of the major headlines from those performances.

"I think it shows what the Club has brought through," he explained. "At the weekend, we had four Academy products playing in the game, so that was great to see. Me, Barnesy (Harvey Barnes) and Ki (Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall), we work well together.

"We’ve been through the Academy together since we were young, probably about 10 years old. We’ve known each other very well throughout the progress we’ve made in our career so far. That’s a benefit we have going down the left-hand side and hopefully we can keep creating chances and scoring more goals.

"We’ve got a great team mentality and we’ve had that all along. It’s about sticking together throughout this season. It’s been a hard season so far. We always knew we could work together and get back to where we were. We’ve been getting the results we wanted and hopefully we can continue to show that."

Thomas is well aware of the importance of securing a positive home result in a two-legged European tie, while also commenting on the boost provided by successive Premier League clean sheets.

"It's always hard to go away in Europe as we’ve realised," he continued. "We’ve not had the best results away from home in Europe, so hopefully we can show our qualities tomorrow. A good result to take to there will hopefully allow us to show what we have there and we can get through to the next round. 

"It’s one of the things which has been spoken about quite a lot, our defensive record and the amount of clean sheets that we’ve had this season. To get two in the last two is a great feeling and we’ve looked at it. We’ve looked to work on things to do with our defensive work. Hopefully we can progress on that."

Tickets for the first leg round of 16 knockout clash with Rennes are now on general sale. To buy, click HERE. 

All times GMT.