- Youri Tielemans reacts to Leicester City’s 4-1 loss to Nottingham Forest
- The Foxes exited the Emirates FA Cup in the fourth round
- Tielemans says City did not perform well enough at the City Ground
Leicester’s defence of the FA Cup came to an end after Steve Cooper’s side won 4-1 in Nottingham, with Kelechi Iheanacho the only man on the scoresheet for the Foxes.
Forest raced into a 3-0 lead in the first half, before Iheanacho reduced the deficit, however the opposition’s three-goal advantage was restored after the break, and there would be no comeback for City.
Speaking to LCFC TV at full-time, Tielemans said: “It’s disappointing, it’s the only thing I can say. As a team, we weren’t good enough today. They were the better team, I think there’s nothing much to say.
“I think we conceded early goals, three in a row, and we tried to come back into the game, but it just didn’t happen. At half-time, we said we need to get out quickly and try to get the next goal, and that didn’t happen – they scored.”
City were greeted by a raucous atmosphere at the City Ground, with over 4,000 members of the Blue Army playing their role in the away stand. However, Tielemans explained his side did not represent the Club’s fans well enough.
“That’s football, we know it’s a big game for Leicester and Nottingham,” he said. “The crowd gets fired up, which is normal, but the only thing I can say about the fans is that we need to apologise to ours.
“They’ve been behind us, they are behind us, but we weren’t good enough on the pitch and we didn’t represent them well today. Hopefully we can do that in the next game, but it’s very disappointing.”
Winners of the FA Cup for the first time in their history in 2021, Tielemans – who scored a stunner in the Wembley final – was hoping for more success this term, however it wasn’t to be.
“Last season’s done, we won it and now we tried to go as far as we could, but this was it unfortunately,” he said. “We weren’t at our best today, we weren’t good enough and that’s it.
“It’s always an honour to represent this club, this team, and I was really proud of this, but unfortunately it’s a night to forget.
“We just need to digest this, look at ourselves in the mirror and then we’ll see from tomorrow.”