Football
ESPN staff 7y

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri delighted by resilience at Sevilla

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri said he was very satisfied with the resilience his side had shown to give themselves a foothold in their Champions League tie against Sevilla.

Ranieri's struggling Premier League champions found themselves 2-0 down in Spain but produced a spirited response to pull a crucial away goal back through Jamie Vardy.

Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel had a superb evening, making a number of vital saves -- including stopping an early penalty -- as Sevilla produced a dominant first half.

But asked whether he was pleased with the outcome, Ranieri told BT Sport: "Yes, of course.

"We knew they are better than us, with high quality. They keep possession. We suffered and they showed their quality -- but we showed our big heart, our organisation.

"We showed belief and we never gave up. That makes me satisfied and in the end, if we had been a little calmer on the counter attack, we could do a little more.

"But it was very important, with the match at home to come, that everything is open. We suffered but we are ready to do our best."

Ranieri said his side had created some of their own problems before the break, saying: "We knew their quality is very high and when you make mistakes the opponents will score goals.

"But Kasper was fantastic. He saved the penalty and gave a lot of support to his defenders.

"For us it is important to show our performance, to show our football.

"Of course they can score in any moment but we know what we have and we can play better, I think."

Schmeichel told BT Sport that making saves "is what I am there to do" and added: "You have nights like that. We knew we would have to ride our luck and I would have to come up with some saves. Everyone deserves credit.

"We lost the game, and that is disappointing. We certainly are not celebrating. But 2-1 away from home in the Champions League? We will take that."

He said the players had been desperate to put in a good performance because of "how much we were hurting from what has happened this season" and said he believed "anything can happen" in the return leg.

Goal-scorer Vardy, meanwhile, said: "We knew we had to be patient and take our chances, but we knew we could hurt them."

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