Brendan Rodgers admitted Leicester should be ‘worried’ after they were sent crashing out of the FA Cup by Blackburn.
The winners of this competition in 2021, Leicester were awful as goals from Tyrhys Dolan and Sammie Szmodics sent promotion-chasing Rovers into round six for the first time in eight years.
Substitute Kelechi Iheanacho’s strike could not save Leicester and it remains to be seen what impact this result has on their Premier League relegation battle. It was not the way Rodgers wanted to celebrate four years in charge as his side were booed off.
‘It was a real chance to get to the quarter-finals,’ he said. ‘But they were a lot better than us and we have to be worried about that.
‘It doesn’t help when you continually present chances to teams. Sadly we didn’t have the quality and that bit of grit when defending. I’m very disappointed for the fans. We thoroughly deserved to lose the game.’
Rovers boss Jon Dahl Tomasson was understandably far more upbeat. ‘It’s an unbelievable night for the club,’ he said. ‘The players have written another new chapter in our great history. The performance and result were well deserved.
‘We followed the game plan perfectly. We were brave on the ball and took the game to an extremely good side. Now we are in the last eight of the greatest cup competition in the world.
‘I watched it as a child on television. This is one of the only countries in the world where the cup is alive like this. We take it very seriously.’
Leicester made six changes to Blackburn’s three and Tete, Dennis Praet and Jamie Vardy missed early chances, as did Szmodics and Dolan for Blackburn.
But Dolan was not to be denied and fired Rovers in front in the 33rd minute. Daniel Amartey presented the ball to Dolan and the winger scored from 20 yards.
The half-time boos were inevitable and the visitors soon doubled their lead. Sam Gallagher found Szmodics, who somehow squeezed between Amartey and Ricardo Pereira to prod in the second.
Blackburn could have had more as Leicester threatened to fall apart until Iheanacho gave them hope from close range, before Amartey hit the post with a header in stoppage time.
