James Maddison nets twice at Randers as Leicester ease into last 16

Harvey Barnes struck early on before James Maddison added a second-half brace as Leicester eased into the Europa Conference League last 16 with a 7-2 aggregate win over Randers.

Leicester’s 4-1 victory at the King Power Stadium a week ago meant their Danish opponents were second favourites to advance and the Foxes swelled their lead even further within two minutes of the second leg getting under way.

Barnes, one of four changes Brendan Rodgers made following Sunday’s defeat to Wolves, opened the scoring and Maddison twice curled home from outside the box after the interval in his side’s comfortable 3-1 away win.

Randers spurned several chances to make the contest a more even affair – at least on the night – but were gifted a consolation when Stephen Odey capitalised on a rare mistake from Kasper Schmeichel six minutes from time.

This was not a vintage performance from the visitors, who have slid down to 12th in the Premier League having failed to win since December 28 with a number of injuries taking their toll on their squad this season.

Indeed Schmeichel made several important saves before a back pass bobbled on him and his mis-control allowed Odey in late on but the midlands club kept alive their last remaining hope of silverware in this campaign.

Barnes – who came back into the reckoning alongside Maddison, Jannik Vestergaard and Kelechi Iheanacho – made an immediate impact in wintery conditions.

Collecting the ball on halfway, the England winger went unchallenged as he hurried forward into the box and the lack of challenges meant he was allowed to pick his spot, curling delightfully into the corner after 100 seconds.

That was not a prelude to the floodgates opening, though, as Randers, who sit sixth in the Danish