Peake: A Close Affair

- The young Foxes were beaten 2-0 following strikes from Bruno Costa and Rui Sousa at Loughborough University 

Trevor Peake felt Leicester City’s Under-19s deserved more from the game following their 2-0 UEFA Youth League defeat to FC Porto at Loughborough University on Tuesday. 

The young Foxes were positive from the off in their first-ever home fixture in the UEFA Youth League and came just inches from taking the lead in the opening 45 minutes. 

FC Porto stopper Diogo Costa pulled off a brilliant save to deny Admiral Muskwe from a tight angle, as he tipped the striker’s effort onto the crossbar. 

It was a vital save and second-half strikes from Bruno Costa and Rui Sousa proved to be enough for the visitors to earn all three UEFA Youth League points. 

“I thought it was quite a close affair,” Peake told LCFC TV after the game. “FC Porto are possession based and they’ve got a lot of experience in this competition, while it’s all new for our lads. 

“For 60 minutes, we showed a good work rate and denied them proper chances – they had a couple of chances, but we looked dangerous when we got the ball into their box. 

“Admiral [Muskwe] got across the front post and he did everything right, but the goalkeeper got a touch and it hit the bar. 

"If that had gone in, it’d been interesting to see how it would have panned out as it would have given us something to hold onto. 

“We certainly had some chances today to go 1-0 up and that would have made a big difference to us psychologically. 

“The goal knocked us back a little bit and we tired towards the end because they’re a possession-based team.”