Rodgers: Reflect Honestly

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Rodgers: Reflect Honestly

Leicester City can use the sting of Thursday's UEFA Europa League exit to spur them for the rest of the campaign, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-02-26T09:00:59.789Z

Rodgers: Reflect Honestly

Leicester City can use the sting of Thursday's UEFA Europa League exit to spur them for the rest of the campaign, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-02-26T09:00:59.789Z

Rodgers: Reflect Honestly

Leicester City can use the sting of Thursday's UEFA Europa League exit to spur them for the rest of the campaign, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-02-26T09:00:59.789Z

Rodgers: Reflect Honestly

Leicester City can use the sting of Thursday's UEFA Europa League exit to spur them for the rest of the campaign, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-02-26T09:00:59.789Z

Rodgers: Reflect Honestly

Leicester City can use the sting of Thursday's UEFA Europa League exit to spur them for the rest of the campaign, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-02-26T09:00:59.789Z

- Brendan Rodgers reflects on Leicester City's European exit on Thursday night- The Foxes were beaten 2-0 by Czech champions Slavia Prague at Leicester City Stadium- Rodgers has called for City's players to be honest in their assessment of the fixture- Attention now switches to the Club's domestic campaign in the Premier League and Emirates FA Cup

Lukáš Provod's close-range effort for Slavia Prague on Filbert Way broke a deadlock which had lasted 139 minutes across the two legs, before a strike from distance by Abdallah Sima settled the tie later on.

While Leicester will naturally be frustrated to exit European football at this stage, Rodgers says the time is now to be honest in their assessment of the fixture and turn attention, swiftly, to the Club's ambitions in both the Premier League and the Emirates FA Cup.

The Foxes are third in the Premier League and host Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the Emirates FA Cup on Sunday 21 March (5pm GMT kick-off).

"It’s disappointment, of course, but as I said to the players afterwards, you have to learn from it," the 48-year-old said at full-time on Thursday evening.

"We can accept it a lot easier because we weren’t good enough on the night and over the two legs. That’s something we have to learn from, but the next two competitions that we’re fighting for, we’re all in now.

"The one thing about this group and how we try to work is that we reflect honestly and that allows us to then go and respond.

"We’ll get back in tomorrow (Friday), we’ll move this on now. We’ve enjoyed this European experience, it’s why we fought so hard, and we’ll fight again this year.

"We want to get into Europe – and be better – next year, but our focus is on Arsenal."

Rodgers admitted the defeat could have been a side effect of Leicester's inexperience in European competitions, but pointed to the fact that experience can only be gained from featuring on that stage more often.

"You only get that through experience," the Northern Irishman continued. "The experience of this season, we’ve done great, come through the group stage and, after getting the draw, of course you want to progress.

"I think the tournament and our qualification has been a really good experience for us. We’re disappointed with the timing of it, with everything we had with injuries, but we’ll go away and reflect on it and we want to push now in the other two competitions we’re in.

"Those are two competitions that we want to do well in. We wanted to do well in the Europa League too, but it wasn’t to be, so we’ll go away and focus on the league and the FA Cup."

Elsewhere, young Portuguese midfielder Sidnei Tavares emerged from the bench in the latter moments to make his maiden senior appearance for the Club and Rodgers was pleased with what he saw.

"I wanted to get him onto the pitch, to see how he coped and to show his personality in the game," the former Liverpool and Celtic manager explained. "I thought in the short time he was on, 13/14 minutes, he showed confidence to get on the ball and he's one that we think can develop."

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