- Leicester City’s progression into round four of the Carabao Cup was achieved on penalties
- It was 0-0 in normal time against Walsall, before winning 3-0 on penalties at Poundland Bescot Stadium
- Manager Steve Cooper praised ‘keeper Danny Ward for his three spot-kick saves
- Cooper felt the performance could have been a lot better but was pleased to get through
Goalless against Sky Bet League 2 Walsall after 90 minutes at Poundland Bescot Stadium, the Foxes triumphed 3-0 on penalties; Ward stopping each of the hosts’ spot-kicks, while captain on the night Ricardo Pereira, Conor Coady and Oliver Skipp all converted.
Far from the performance that Cooper had hoped for, securing a place in the next round was the main positive on a tricky night away to the fourth tier side.
“First and foremost, the penalty shootout was excellent in terms of scoring the penalties and then particularly Wardy and how he’s committed to the plan and made great saves,” City’s Manager said after full-time on Tuesday. “Great credit to him and the goalkeeping department for that. Ultimately it won us the tie.
“We didn’t want it to get to penalties, of course. We would have loved the performance to be more convincing than what it was, and it became a tough night, which was self-inflicted, particularly in the second half with some loose passes.
“We gave Walsall a little bit of hope in the game. With the ball, we need to be better than what we were in the final third so it was a game that we obviously had to stick at and hope that we could improve our levels a little bit.
“It wasn’t quite the way and it took the shootout to get us through. That’s something we need to work on, but objective achieved in terms of getting through.”
There were 10 switches to the side which drew with Everton last Saturday, including a first start for Odsonne Édouard in attack, as several players got more minutes in the tank ahead of returning to league duties at Arsenal this weekend.
The 44-year-old explained: “I see the group of players every day in training whether they have played or not in the Premier League. They are experienced players as well; we brought a really experienced team tonight that have played at a high level.
“There were no newbies if you like, there were lots of familiar faces. Odsonne got his first start, which he needed. You do run the risk a little bit with so many changes, but I do believe in giving the players opportunities when they are training as they are and we need to keep everybody as ready as we can while trying to win games in cup competitions and the league.
“That was the rationale behind the changes. In the end, we’ve got through. We would have liked it to be smoother and better and a bit easier on the eye, but that’s sometimes what it takes.”
Now into the last-16, there are opportunities to build momentum across multiple competitions, although the Welshman acknowledged the need to improve the performance level for that to be the case.
He added: “We said to the players before, we want to be in cup competitions to go as far as we can and you’re only a game or two away from the quarter-finals. That will always be the plan. You don’t go into any game not wanting to get through. That was certainly the objective tonight.
“We took it seriously, we’re giving everything. We aim to do better than we did tonight because the performance was an average one at best. Let’s work hard to improve and hopefully we can make the supporters a little bit happier.”