Staff Reporter.
Brendan Rodgers said his “young team will learn” after they gave away a two-goal lead over Napoli in their Europa League opener at King Power Stadium.
Napoli’s Victor Osimhen scored twice in the second half after Ayoze Perez and Harvey Barnes had given Leicester a 2-0 lead.
Osimhen’s exquisite touch past Kasper Schmeichel reduced the deficit, before he completed the comeback with a header in the 87th minute.
“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 Rodgers.
Perez had opened the scoring with a volley from Barnes’ cross before the winger fired in Leicester’s second shortly after summer signing Patson Daka had a goal ruled out for offside.
The hosts looked set to take pole position in Group C, but Osimhen dealt a late blow before Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi was sent off for a second booking.
It leaves the group wide open with Leicester still to travel to Italy, as well as facing Spartak Moscow and Legia Warsaw.
“I’m disappointed with the end result but there were some exciting and good moments,” added Rodgers. “The two goals are outstanding and the one that was disallowed was tight.
“Maybe we tired a bit. There are things for us to improve on – like keeping the ball better for longer periods. If we did that, we wouldn’t tire so quickly.
“The effort and mentality was good. It is a shame we couldn’t close it out.”
Meanwhile Rangers suffered a rare Europa League group defeat after being undone by Lyon in their Group A opener.
Cameroon forward Karl Toko Ekambi arced a stunning 23rd-minute opener before an attempted clearance rebounded off James Tavernier into his own net at Ibrox.
Joe Aribo, Ryan Kent and John Lundstram passed up first-half chances, while Tavernier’s free-kick crashed off the woodwork at 2-0.
However, a composed showing from Lyon ensured they claimed victory.
Both sides registered the same amount of shots on target, but the Ligue 1 team earned their victory with more composure and nous at the right times in an impressive away display.
The defeat is Rangers’ fourth in their opening 11 games across all competitions this season – double what they suffered in 90 minutes throughout the entirety of last term – and brings to an end a 10-match unbeaten run in the Europa League group stage.
Steven Gerrard now has to get his players ready for a home game against Motherwell on Sunday, but the Ibrox boss will be sweating over the fitness of Kent – who was replaced with 20 minutes to go after pulling up.
Here’s every result from another action-packed Thursday night ?
How are you feeling after that? #UEL pic.twitter.com/wHvYRPv3Dv
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) September 16, 2021
Lyon’s last trip to Govan in 2007 ended with the French side trouncing Walter Smith’s men 3-0 in the Champions League, with the likes of Juninho, Karim Benzema, Fabio Grosso and Sidney Govou strutting their stuff at Ibrox.