Harvey Barnes could become Leicester City’s leading scorer in European competitions on Thursday night if he nets against Legia Warsaw.
Harvey Barnes said “As we saw last year, playing in it last year, you realise what a great competition it is, and what a great opportunity you have to play in it. I had some great games in it. The start of this season, to get my first goal was great, so hopefully I can continue that. Somebody made me aware of the stat, so it’d be nice to top that chart. But there are still a lot of games left in the competition, this year we want to go as far as we can so there will be a lot of opportunities to get to the top of that, then hopefully extend it.”
Talking about Barnes in these circumstances may come as a surprise to anybody who remembers the winger’s early days in City’s team. After making his senior debut in the 5-0 Champions League loss to Porto in 2016, he enjoyed successful loan spells with MK Dons, Barnsley and West Brom before returning to City’s first team. There, it took him a while to find his shooting boots. In 2019, he scored two goals for City, but since 2020 onwards, he has scored 20 club goals, despite missing three months with a knee injury last season.
Harvey Barnes said “Myself, I always believed and knew that I was a good finisher and could score goals. It was just having that confidence, having previously been in the Championship and stepping up a league. Of course it’s different and there are different aspects to the game, but as a player you still do the same things. That part of it doesn’t change. So it was just having that confidence that even though I was at the highest level, if you still do what you’re good at and know you can do, the goals will come. It was just about being patient more than anything, because the first goal did take quite a while.”
The City winger has four goals to his name in the Europa League, including one in the 2-2 draw with Napoli in this season’s opener. That puts him level with Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez for the highest tally of goals for City in Europe. It’s a record he is hoping to break on Thursday night, and then extend later in the tournament in the hope that City get through to the latter rounds.
