A Positive Night, Says Schmeichel

- Leicester City’s Kasper Schmeichel reacts to Thursday’s 3-2 aggregate victory over Rennes in the UEFA Europa Conference League
- The Foxes lost 2-1 at Roazhon Park, but advanced to the quarter-finals
- Wesley Fofana scored on his return from injury

Wesley Fofana, on his return to the starting XI, restored parity with a brilliant header after Benjamin Bourigeaud had converted inside 10 minutes. Although Flavien Tait put the host back in front on the night, Leicester’s first leg success meant they would advance.

Schmeichel himself played a huge part, saving from substitute Serhou Guirassy in superb fashion to help set up a quarter-final berth in the inaugural competition.

“The final whistle was a good feeling,” he told LCFC TV at full-time. “It’s a great achievement, it’s a competition that we want to progress far in, but it’s a competition we know if we want to do that, then we have to play better than we did today.

“We defended well, the lads put their bodies on the line. We scored from a set-piece, which was nice, and having Wesley [Fofana] back is fantastic, so it was a really positive night, but if we want to progress in this, then we’ll have to do a lot better.

“These are the kind of moments you also train for. You train for those hectic moments, the moments where everything’s on the line and obviously, coming here, we know what the atmosphere was going to be like.

“We knew it was going to be intense, and as you can hear, we had unbelievable support ourselves. They had great support, so it was a great occasion and we knew we were going to have to be really resilient. We had to stand up to some of their pressure, but yes, there’s a lot to work on still.”

The Foxes defended valiantly against Rennes’ advances, with Schmeichel’s stop in the closing stages ensuring they’d send 1,100 travelling fans back to England in a buoyant mood.

“I haven’t seen it yet, but yes, I think it was just a case of making myself as big as possible, trying to get as close to the striker as I could and then hoping it would hit me in the hope that the rebound didn’t fall to one of theirs.

“These are the kind of nights we want to give them, being able to travel to places like this and make them proud. We’ve always had amazing travelling support, it’s something that on the pitch we can hear.

“I saw at one point Youri [Tielemans] was jeering them up, trying to keep them going, and we needed them tonight. They were there for us.

“We can’t rely on defending our way through a 2-0 lead. We have to learn that in the first half, we have to some out quicker, we have to dominate the ball more than we did.

“We’ve got to be brave having the ball, and show the composure that we show at a lot of times, but when the pressure’s on and things are on the line, we have to show that we’re good players.”