Report as Brendan Rodgers' side leave it late through substitute Kelechi Iheanacho to keep alive their hopes of a first FA Cup; Graham Potter gave his fringe players an opportunity to shine and they competed well in a tight encounter
Thursday 11 February 2021 06:07, UK
Kelechi Iheanacho scored an injury-time winner to send Leicester into the last eight of the FA Cup as they edged past Brighton 1-0.
The return of Jamie Vardy and Wilfred Ndidi to the Leicester ranks means the Foxes were nearly at full-strength but they struggled for rhythm and tempo against a much-changed Brighton side.
In an encounter of few chances that took 83 minutes for the first shot on target to be registered, it looked that extra-time and penalties were on the agenda but Iheanacho - on for Vardy - headed home with virtually the last action of the game to inflict a first defeat in seven games for Brighton.
The draw for the quarter-final will take place on Thursday evening, ahead of the final fifth-round tie of the week between Barnsley and Chelsea.
Victory came at a price though after James Justin was carried off in the second half with a knee problem when he landed awkwardly.
Despite making seven changes, Brighton played with great cohesion and confidence with Percy Tau and Andi Zeqiri showing impressive chemistry. Graham Potter's side lost their Premier League clash 3-0 at the King Power Stadium in December yet forced Leicester to retreat and Zeqiri's ambitious overhead kick flew over five minutes before the break.
The Seagulls controlled possession but their patient build-up lacked the final pass.
Leicester seemed to be playing with the handbrake on with Vardy very isolated in attack.
Mike Dean had little to deal with after he had decided to return to duty after he and his family received death threats and abusive messages following his dismissals of Southampton defender Jan Bednarek and West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek. His biggest call of the half came near the break when booking Ayoze Perez for a lunge on Pascal Gross, just one of three fouls committed in the first half.
The lull continued after the break and Vardy was withdrawn after an hour for Iheanacho while James Maddison also replaced the ineffective Perez.
In a rare opening Zeqiri did at least have the ball in the net after 65 minutes after a cute finish, but was rightly ruled offside.
Two minutes later Cengiz Under also had a goal disallowed - sparing Dan Burn's blushes when he lost the ball in the area - as Iheanacho was offside in the build-up.
Zeqiri curled wide soon after, following the slip from Justin which saw the defender carried off.
The game seemed destined for extra time until Iheanacho popped up at the death to head in Youri Tielemans' cross and send the Foxes through.
The fact that Leicester have coped so smoothly without the Turkish international this season is a testament to the management of Rodgers and the potential shown by Wesley Fofana. It was only less than six months ago that Soyuncu was being talked about as a potential Manchester City target after a formidable season with the Foxes where he helped them ease the burden of losing Harry Maguire. Here, his class shone through, sniffing out any loose balls in his box and starting Leicester attacks with some crisp long-range passing. Since returning from injury, in the 270 minutes of action with Soyuncu on the field, Leicester haven't conceded a goal. That's no coincidence.
Brendan Rodgers said: "I believe we have improved, the mentality in the team has grown over the last year. Let's see if we can make the next step, let's see who we get.
"Everyone was delighted it wasn't half-hour more for extra-time. The game was a bit broken and there weren't so many chances.
"You have to keep going and keep fighting. It's another clean sheet, a great win, players getting minutes and getting through to the quarter-finals again."
Graham Potter said: "We're disappointed, we put such a lot into the game. There were some tired minds on the pitch and we switched off a little bit.
"Our performance was really good, we more than matched them. We're happy about that but disappointed with the result.
"Both sides would say there wasn't too much on either goal and it was a tight game, both sides defended well. We didn't have enough in the final third to be really satisfied but our performance up until that point was good.
"In extra-time maybe we could have influenced it a bit more but it wasn't to be.
"The overall performance was strong against a good Leicester team. We were the better team over the 90 minutes. We did a lot of things well but it's hard to think about that because we're so disappointed to lose."
The FA Cup schedule has been confirmed, with the final set to take place at Wembley on Saturday, May 15.
There will be no replays this season to help ease fixture congestion.
The draw for the quarter-final will take place on Thursday evening ahead of the final fifth-round tie of the week between Barnsley and Chelsea.
