Leicester City of England attacker, Kelechi Iheanacho has earned a fresh does of accolades from The Foxes’ coach, Brendan Rodgers, after the Super Eagles’ youngster helped them reach the English A Cup for the first time in over 50 years.
A well taken goal in Sunday’s semi-final against Southampton saw Iheanacho play the role of the hero once more, becoming the African player with most goals in the competition’s history, and Rodgers was quick to point out how crucial that sizzler was.
Megasportsaena.com reports that a 55th minute stunner was all it ook for Iheanacho to fire Leicester into their first FA Cup final since 1969 as 4,000 spectators witnessed their 1-0 win over Southampton at Wembley.
Southampton last reached the FA Cup final in 2003 but failed to register a shot on target – the best chance falling to Ibrahima Diallo – as their run came to a disappointing end.
Rodgers restored Ayoze Perez to the Leicester line-up for the FA Cup semi-final against Southampton and the Spaniard was dropped from the squad against West Ham United the previous weekend for hosting a party, with attendees Hamza Choudhury and James Maddison also omitted for that crunch match.
The latter pair were on the bench at Wembley, where Perez came into the starting line-up along with Caglar Soyuncu.
Iheanacho’s swept finish at the second attempt after 55 minutes was enough to ensure the Foxes progress to face Chelsea. There is expected to be 21,000 in attendance – including far more supporters – when they return to Wembley on May 15 looking to win their first-ever FA Cup.
Maddison missed two good chances to extend Leicester’s lead following his introduction off the bench in front of the watching Gareth Southgate, but one goal was enough for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
Southampton, winners of the FA Cup in 1976, had looked slightly frozen by the occasion; they failed to attempt a single shot at goal in the opening 45 minutes of a match for the first time since November 2019 against Everton in the Premier League – but there was more intensity from Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side upon the restart.
However, Leicester would open the scoring after 55 minutes. Vardy’s movement on the flank left Bednarek trailing in this wake, with the striker crossing for Iheanacho to shoot goalwards, but the ball bounced kindly off Vestergaard and the in-form striker made no mistake with the rebound.
There was much greater urgency now from Southampton as Hasenhuttl introduced Che Adams, and after the Scotland striker’s shot was blocked by Evans, Diallo was unable to keep his shot down.
He came within a whisker of equalising moments later, however, as he ran onto Wilfred Ndidi’s headed clearance to flash a rising volley a yard wide with Kasper Schmeichel stranded.
There was still not a single shot on target – and that’s how it would end. When Ward-Prowse’s final corner was claimed by Schmeichel, their wait for a second FA Cup was extended into a 46th year at least as Leicester marched on.
“The FA Cup loves me, and I love the FA Cup,” Iheanacho after his goal extended his run to having scored in the last three rounds. His finish was the 14th FA Cup goal of his career while no other player has scored more in the past five seasons.
Rodgers added: “It’s amazing. The club have been waiting a long time to get to the final. I thought we deserved it. We defended strongly and didn’t concede any efforts on goal. It was always going to be a tight game but I felt we deserved it.
“We had to defend well, which we did. I’m delighted for the players as they’ve shown that they’re constantly learning. The performance was very composed, mature, and we got the goal that counted.”
