Brendan Rodgers has never enjoyed much luck in the Europa League. At Liverpool and Celtic he failed to progress beyond the first knockout rounds but, despite being well below their compelling best, his Leicester City side did just enough to ensure they kick off the second leg next Thursday as slight favourites.
No matter that Jamie Vardy was virtually anonymous on a mild, cloudy night in Prague, Leicester kept the clean sheet which could yet alter their manager’s European fortunes by helping to secure a place in the last 16.
“I was really pleased from a defensive perspective,” Rodgers said. “We kept them reasonably quiet. The pitch was heavy but I was delighted with the spirit and the solidity. Hopefully we’ll score the goals at home next week.”
The Czech champions welcomed Leicester with some assiduous man marking and an artistic warning. “Slavia Praha Fox Hunting” read the message spelt out across the empty banks of specially reconfigured red and white seats in the main stand.
Slavia have not been beaten here since November 2019 and it was swiftly easy to appreciate why. In Abdallah Dipo Sima they possess a quick, clever and inventive right winger who relished testing Rodgers’s 19-year-old left-back Luke Thomas.
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Only a fine tackle on Calgar Soynucu’s part as Sima shaped to shoot came between Leicester and the near certain concession of a first half goal but by then the visitors had already realised Jindrich Trpisovsky’s side would be no pushovers.
Sima’s magnetic first touch and dynamic change of pace dictated that Rodgers’s defence were being made to look somewhat slapdash at times. Small wonder Leicester’s relief seemed almost palpable as Alexander Bah narrowly headed wide.
Admittedly the rebound from a James Maddison free-kick created a half chance for Harvey Barnes but the angle was a little too awkward and he sent a rather snatched shot swerving wide.
A little earlier a typically elegant pass from Youri Tielemans left Barnes with only Ondrej Kolar to beat yet he shot straight at the goalkeeper’s legs as the better placed Maddison screamed for his teammate to square it.
Slavia will doubtless have been delighted by the way the team sitting third in the Premier League huffed and puffed through the second period. As Kasper Schmeichel tipped Nicolas Stanciu’s dipping shot from the edge of the area out for a corner Leicester looked very much a side with only one win in their past eight European games.
It was time for Rodgers to flick a few switches and, sure enough, he introduced Kelechi Iheanacho at the expense of the increasingly isolated Vardy who, quite apart from not once testing Slavia’s goalkeeper barely touched the ball throughout.
Unfortunately Iheanacho almost instantly ruled himself out of next week’s return by catching Jakub Hromada in the throat and earning himself not merely a yellow card but a one-match Europa League suspension. An aggrieved Rodgers felt it was accidental and unduly harsh. “I thought the officials were very poor,” he said with some justification. “It was clear it wasn’t an elbow from Kelechi.”
As the visiting manager’s thoughts presumably turned to not only preserving the goalless score line ahead of the second leg but the Premier League trip to Aston Villa on Sunday, Maddison made way for Hamza Choudhury, a midfielder who came close to joining Newcastle on loan last month quickly, and all too briefly, raised the tone, unleashing a brilliant cross which Iheanacho headed fractionally wide.
Much as he would have liked to have kicked off 1-0 up next week, Rodger was not overly downcast. “Jamie Vardy got a good hour in his legs and will be fresh for Villa,” he said, apparently unconcerned at the former England striker’s peripheral impact. “Jamie’s not always involved a great deal. He’s a special player that relies on our midfield and wide players to get on the ball. He just needs those chances.”