- Leicester City visit St. James’ Park on Monday (8pm kick-off)
- Newcastle United host the Premier League showdown
- Boubakary Soumaré looked ahead to facing the Magpies
- The Foxes must come together to save the season, he said
Visiting St. James’ Park for an 8pm kick-off on Monday evening, the Foxes are two points from Premier League safety with just six left to play for and firmly up against it to remain in the top-flight for next season.
Sitting down with LCFC TV ahead of the encounter with Eddie Howe’s side, Soumaré admitted that it has been a tough season for all concerned, but now is the time to solely focus on how to take points from the remaining two matches.
“For me and all the players at the Club, it’s not easy to sum up by just saying it’s difficult,” the midfielder began. “When you consider the daily work and the effort we’ve put in, to come up short on the results, it’s obviously disappointing.
“But we’ve still got it within us to save the season effectively, with these two matches left. I think we are feeling pretty confident going into these last two matches. We really feel that we’re on a mission; that mission of course being to make sure that Leicester City stays afloat in the Premier League.”
Glimpses of the quality within the squad have been evident on too few occasions this year, with the team’s last league victory picked up at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on 22 April. That form must now be recaptured at a critical juncture in the campaign.
The 24-year-old reflected: “Of course, we’ve produced some great performances throughout the course of the season, not just in one or two matches, but we’ve had lengthy runs as well, so we certainly know what we’re capable of.
“It’s really just down to hard work as a collective group now. We’ve had the runs and we know that the talent is there. We’ve got a fight on our hands, and we have to now step up and fight. We have to set out to win both of those last two matches.”
The Magpies are on course to secure a European spot for next season. They came out on top in both of this season’s previous meetings, too, but that must all count for nothing come Monday night, Soumaré says.
The Frenchman added: “It’s football and in the Premier League, all matches are tough – they are all difficult. It’s up to us at this point to just head to St. James’ in search of those three points.
“We know Newcastle have had a very good season and are tough opponents, but we can only go there and give everything to come away with the victory and three points.”
All times BST.