Kasper Schmeichel makes brutally honest Leicester City admission despite European progress

Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has admitted his team will need to perform better than they did against Rennes if they want to win the Europa Conference League.

City fell to a 2-1 defeat in France on Thursday evening, though it was enough to see them through with a 3-2 aggregate scoreline. Schmeichel made a stunning save in the closing stages to keep Leicester in the tie, with Jannik Vestergaard and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also defending sublimely.

Speaking to BT Sport after the match, Schmeichel admitted it was a "proud" but "stressful" night for the City players. Their resilience and determination were on show in front of a vocal group of the Foxes faithful.

"It was no fun. It was stressful but we knew what we were coming in for," Schmeichel said. "We didn't play our best, that's safe to say, but we showed resilience and dug in. Great feeling, great day but still very, very tough.

"As a keeper you try and get yourself into a shape where you're covering as much of the goal as you can. You need it to hit you and luckily it did.

"These are the nights that we want. Great credit to the Rennes fans as well, they were fantastic. Our fans as well, we weren't allowed that many of them in but we could hear them. These European nights are special and that's why we want more of them.

"Very, very proud. But we know if it's a competition we want to progress further in, we'll have to play better than we did today. We know there's a lot to improve on."