Leicester City crumbled late as Victor Osimhen Scored a brilliant double and Wilfred Ndidi was shown red after Harvey Barnes and Ayoze Perez had fired Rodger’s men into a 2-0 Lead.
Leicester was left to rue the decisions of the UK Government after they let slip a two-goal lead against Napoli leaving them with a battle to top their Europa League group.
With barely 20 minutes remaining, Leicester was 2-0 up thanks to goals from Ayoze Perez and Harvey Barnes, before a double from the outstanding Victor Osimhen rescued a deserved point for Napoli. Wilfred Ndidi was sent off in stoppage time as Leicester’s frustration bubbled to the surface.
“The crime isn’t giving away the two goals, the crime is if you don’t learn from it – I’m sure that is something this young team will do,’ said Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers. ‘There are things for us to improve on – keeping the ball better for longer periods, if we did that we wouldn’t tire so quickly. It’s a shame we couldn’t close it out.”
Earlier, the atmosphere had been excellent and Leicester quickly found their rhythm. Moments after David Ospina had saved from Barnes, the winger crossed for the unmarked Perez, whose far-post volley sneaked in off the body of the former Arsenal goalkeeper.
Leicester had left Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans on the bench and at that stage the decision looked to be paying off.
Napoli were struggling with Leicester’s intensity but slowly began to make their extra man in midfield count, forcing the home side to rely on counter-attacks.
A skilful, mobile centre-forward, Osimhen was causing plenty of problems for the recalled Jonny Evans but before the break, his finishing did not match his approach work.
Aware his team was in danger of losing control, Brendan Rodgers sent on Tielemans for Perez to bring order in midfield. The substitute thought he had made an immediate impact just before the hour mark with a delightful pass that Patson Daka drove beyond Ospina from 15 yards, only for VAR to rule it offside by the tightest of margins.
Leicester did not have to wait long to double their lead. Kelechi Iheanacho seized on a poor pass from Giovanni Di Lorenzo and immediately released Barnes, who breezed outside Kevin Malcuit and found the bottom-right corner.
In the 69th minute, Osimhen got the goal his display deserved. After a clever exchange involving Insigne, substitute Elif Elmas and Fabian Ruiz, Osimhen held off Jannik Vestergaard and lifted the ball gently over Schmeichel to revive his side’s hopes.
With three minutes left, substitute Matteo Politano crossed from the right and Osimhen outjumped Caglar Soyuncu – on at half-time for the injured Evans – to glance a header into Schmeichel’s far corner. Then in stoppage time Ndidi was dismissed when he was shown a second yellow card for tugging an opponent’s shirt. ‘I didn’t think the referee was very good all night,’ added Rodgers.