Leicester’s Maddison hails Fofana’s ‘unbelievable’ pace while fasting

Leicester’s Maddison hails Fofana’s ‘unbelievable’ pace while fasting

The defender broke up many dangerous attacks in the win over PSV Eindhoven.

Leicester’s Wesley Fofana (left) heads the ball during the Europa Conference League quarterfinals match against PSV Eindhoven on Thursday. (AP pic)
LONDON:
Leicester City’s James Maddison heaped praise on defender Wesley Fofana on Thursday after he delivered an impressive performance in the Europa Conference League quarterfinals against PSV Eindhoven while fasting for Ramadan.

After a goalless first leg, Maddison and Ricardo Pereira scored as Leicester came from behind in the return match to beat the Dutch club 2-1 and reach their first European semifinal.

They will play AS Roma for a spot in the final of Europe’s third-tier competition.

The 21-year-old Fofana, who recently returned from a serious leg injury, showed excellent pace and broke up several dangerous PSV attacks in the second half.

“The togetherness of the boys is unbelievable,” Maddison said. “For example, Wesley Fofana is fasting at the minute – he’s not eating or drinking anything all day and he puts in a performance like that.

“He’s stopping all the counterattacks by sprinting. That epitomises what we are about in terms of courage.”

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers was happy with the response of his players in the second half.

“We’re a team that’s young in terms of European football. We come to PSV Eindhoven with a great history in winning the European Cup in 1988. For us, we’re so young in it,” Rodgers said.

“These are great experiences for us, we showed great personality and I’m so happy for the players and it’s the first semifinal in our history.”

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