Schmeichel: All Credit To The Lads

- Kasper Schmeichel credited Leicester City for dealing with ‘big pressure’ penalties on Wednesday night
- The Foxes stopper saved two penalties in the shootout triumph over Newcastle United
- Brendan Rodgers’ side will face Luton Town at Kenilworth Road in the third round

The Denmark international shot-stopper saved two spot-kicks during City’s shootout triumph over the Magpies at St. James’ Park, as the Foxes won the shootout 4-2.

While pleased to progress in a competition that City are three times winners of, Schmeichel highlighted areas of improvement at the full-time whistle.

Schmeichel said: “I’m happy with the result. I think we’ve got a lot to improve on, I think we didn’t play our best game if we’re honest with ourselves and we will analyse it properly.

“We weren’t really slick in our passing, we didn’t really create too many chances so there are lots of things for us to improve on, but what’s amazingly good is our attitude and our bottle to go up and take penalties.

“That’s big pressure, so all credit to the lads.

“The pressure is on you because you want to win, obviously, but, the pressure is on the takers. It’s a huge goal, they’re expected to score, and you should score so the pressure is on them definitely.”

The Foxes will now contest a Carabao Cup Third Round tie with Luton town at Kenilworth Road next month, and Schmeichel outlined the importance of progressing in the competition.

The City No.1 said: “It’s massively important. It would have been such a disappointment to go out in the second round. This is a trophy that we feel last year we should’ve gone further in and a trophy we ultimately should be competing for. 

“For us, I look more at the attitude of the lads and how we bounced back. We’re disappointed we’re not winning the game and then to step up and take penalties with big pressure like that, we said it takes a lot of courage to stand up and do it.

“I lost the toss both times, they chose to kick second, they chose the end, so they obviously chose their end, but the lads stayed cool and got the job done.

“It’s been a decent start. For us now it’s really important we recover right, and Saturday is huge for us. If we can win that game, we can stay in that top four then that’s a really, really good start and something to build on for after the international break.”