Following the goalless draw, the penalty save for Kasper Schmeichel saved Leicester ‘s loss at Brighton, and Brendan Rodgers, manager of Foxes, called his goalkeeper “world-class.”
The Denmark international kept Neal Maupay ‘s 14th-minute spot-kick out after clumsily brought down Aaron Connolly by James Justin. It was the wrong penalty for the Brighton striker, with Schmeichel not having to move or stretch himself to hold it out, as he smothered the shot down to his right.
In the last 10 Premier League games, Leicester was spared the fifth defeat as Rodgers’ side continues to limp on to qualify for the Champions League.
Rodgers said: “He’s priceless, Kasper made a big save from the penalty. He’s a goalkeeper of world-class quality. There’s just no doubt he’s among the best goalkeepers in this league. On the target, he’s just his presence and leadership. He ‘s learning and getting penalty-takers into the job, and is so agile. He had been brilliant in the two back games. He made two important savings at Watford, and another significant save tonight.”
Leicester was mediocre on Tuesday night, offering nothing in attack as top scorer Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho were mainly anonymous and service-hungry.On the fourth-placed Chelsea, who visited the King Power Stadium in this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finals, Rodgers’ side, who were strong favorites to finish third at year-end.
“We have still not found our rhythm in attack. The first half wasn’t the best half of football, to be honest, but the second half was a lot better. Our play in front of the ball was much better and our pressure was much better and it looked like a goal was coming but we couldn’t make the breakthrough. We’ve kept going right to the very end, but we just have to find that extra quality and we’re going to work on it. Hopefully, that’s going to come sooner rather than later.
There is no doubt that, of course, we want to be better. Performance levels need to be improved but we’ve got a group that’s very honest and humble enough to accept that and put the work in to make that happen,” admitted Rodgers.
Maupay’s penalty miss might have left Brighton thinking about what might have been like three points in the battle for survival would have given them substantial breathing room.
However, Graham Potter ‘s men followed up on their home win against Arsenal on the weekend with another point on Tuesday night and the Brighton boss was pleased with the results.
“We are in a decent position after four points from two difficult games and even games that were in a short period. With a bit of luck, we could have had another three points tonight but that wasn’t to be. We’ve got a bit of a breather now before preparing for Manchester United (June 30) and we’re going to use the time to recover but you can see we ‘re ready to fight in the last few games to make sure we ‘re staying in this division so that’s a positive sign going forward,” he added.
