Promotion For Brunt & Mansfield; Champions League Confirmed For Kristiansen's Bologna
- Lewis Brunt helps Mansfield Town to automatic promotion from Sky Bet League 2
- Victor Kristiansen features for Bologna, who will play in the UEFA Champions League next term
- Boubakary Soumaré continues to play a part for upwardly-mobile Sevilla in La Liga
- Strong ends to the Sky Bet Championship season for Daniel Iversen and Luke Thomas
As the regular season comes to a close up and down the divisions in the English football pyramid and across the leagues around Europe, we review how each of Leicester City’s loan players have fared during this campaign.
Where better to start than a promotion and another fruitful spell in the EFL for one of Leicester’s young guns. Lewis Brunt helped steer Mansfield Town to a third-place finish in Sky Bet League 2 and reach the third tier for the first time since 2003.
The versatile defender played 34 league games as the Stags collected 86 points from 46 fixtures under Nigel Clough to confirm automatic promotion alongside Wrexham and champions Stockport County. The 23-year-old scored two goals and assisted another along the way, playing 40 times across all competitions.
Crossing over to Italy, Victor Kristiansen’s Bologna have earned a spot in next season’s UEFA Champions League with two fixtures still left to play. The Emilia-Romagna-based outfit defeated Napoli 3-1 on Saturday, extending their unbeaten Serie A run to eight games.
Kristiansen, who has four goal involvements in 31 matches this term, played throughout at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, with his deflected cross assisting the opener. Moving above Juventus and into third in the league standings, Bologna face I Bianconeri at home next Monday (7:45pm kick-off).
Sevilla’s mid-season turnaround, meanwhile, has led Rojiblancos up to 12th in La Liga ahead of their final three fixtures of 2023/24. Boubakary Soumaré has played a key role in the heart of the midfield, appearing 32 times (26 in the league), playing 90 minutes in each of the last 14 matches.
Defeated 3-2 by Villarreal CF on Saturday, Quique Sánchez Flores’ side had been on a run of five games without defeat and will be looking to bounce back at home to relegation-threatened Cádiz this Wednesday evening (6:30pm kick-off).
Luke Thomas’ second half of the season took him to Teesside and a spell at Middlesbrough under Michael Carrick. Although unable to reach the Sky Bet Championship play-offs, a positive season at Riverside Stadium concluded with a 3-1 home victory over Watford, having dispatched Cardiff City 4-1 a week earlier.
The former England Under-21s international, who was on loan at Sheffield United during the opening months of the campaign, started both of those successes, playing 12 Championship matches for eighth-placed Boro in all.
Elsewhere in the second tier, Daniel Iversen helped ensure Stoke City’s Championship status with a string of impressive performances between the sticks. The Potters, who brought in the 26-year-old in January, finished 17th following three straight wins – all without conceding a goal.
With seven shutouts in total across his 18 games at bet365 Stadium, the Dane was a big part of getting Steven Schumacher’s side over the line, as they lost just one of the final eight games.
In the Eredivisie, Development Squad attacker Zach Booth has made 26 appearances for FC Volendam, but could not prevent the Dutch side from suffering relegation to the second tier.
Four successive defeats sealed their fate and, with one final game remaining, at home to Go Ahead Eagles on Sunday (1:30pm kick-off), the American will be aiming to add to his tally of four goal involvements.
Another Under-21s squad member, Paul Appiah, saw his time at Maidstone United come to a close having seen the Stones reach the National League South play-offs, losing out to Worthing in the semi-finals after a fourth-place finish in the regular season. The dependable Dutch defender turned out 18 times in all for United.
Nathan Opoku suffered a serious leg injury while featuring for OH Leuven in the Jupiler League Europe Play-Offs late last month, unfortunately ending his campaign having netted twice in 20 appearances.
OHL sit fourth in their play-off group, three points behind Shinji Okazaki’s Sint-Truidense VV, who they travel to face on Friday (7:45pm kick-off) in their penultimate fixture.
All times BST.