Brendan Rodgers
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers vowed to keep chasing the top six after victory over Crystal Palace. Ademola Lookman and the impressive Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall struck in the first half to earn a 2-1 win. Wilfried Zaha pulled a goal back – following up after Kasper Schmeichel saved his penalty. The goalkeeper had already denied the striker from the spot but VAR had ruled Caglar Soyuncu had encroached. The Foxes are ninth in the Premier League, 11 points behind sixth-placed West Ham with three games in hand, with a game against Newcastle at St James’ Park on Sunday, and Rodgers refused to give up the hunt.
Brendan Rodgers said: “We can’t stop until the last whistle goes, we have been really unfortunate and it’s been a real challenge for us without our top players. Now they are coming back and because they are back it means I can rest some and put in a fresh team. It’s going to be a big challenge because we are playing right the way through and we’re going to fight until the very end. I thought Kiernan was outstanding. He is a young player who since he has come into the team he is everything which represents a team of mine. Honest, great industry, runs, works, presses and has got quality. We were saying to him, as a number eight, the job is to create goals and score goals and he has made a lovely pass for Ade’s first and the second goal he scored was first class. He has made a real impact with his honesty and quality and I’m delighted for him.”
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was left to rue a missed opportunity as he feels their 2-2 draw with Liverpool has left their rivals still “alive” in the title race. City were twice pegged back at the Etihad Stadium after goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus were cancelled out by Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane.
Brendan Rodgers said: “It was a fantastic game from both sides and both sides try to win every game in all competitions. I had the feeling that with this result we missed an opportunity, a feeling we leave them alive. But I said to the team I don’t want one second of sadness. I’m so glad and happy with the way we played. When you do many good things the sadness is there, but I said ‘Forget it’. We were ourselves, we performed incredibly well and unfortunately we could not win. In general it was a good performance, so happy and glad for my team.”
