Leicester City heroes deliver 'devastating' verdict after Roma clash

A trio of former Leicester City stars were on punditry duty in the BT Sport studio for the first leg of the Foxes' Europa Conference League semi-final against Roma at the King Power Stadium on Thursday night.

Robbie Savage, Emile Heskey and Danny Simpson all gave their verdict at the halfway point of the tie, which is finely poised at 1-1 going into next week's second leg in Rome. Leicester went behind to Lorenzo Pellegrini's 15th-minute opener but hit back to level in the 67th minute, when Gianluca Mancini turned a cross from substitute Harvey Barnes into his own net, under pressure from Ademola Lookman.

Ideally, Brendan Rodgers' side would have loved to take a lead into the away leg - but they remain in with a fighting chance of reaching the final in Tirana. "I said before the game that if Leicester could travel to Rome and still be in the tie, they'd be happy with that," said Savage.

"I thought it was a good second half. Once again, Brendan Rodgers used his subs extremely well, like he did against PSV. So I think the second half performance was very good and I think he will be happy, knowing that a victory in Rome and they'll go through."

Savage pointed to the introduction of Barnes as a pivotal moment, adding: "It was the substitution - Lookman had been playing on the left hand side and when he brought Harvey Barnes on, we all know how devastating Harvey Barnes can be on the left, and he put Lookman on the right. So that little tactical change in the personnel just helped that.

"Great strength (from Lookman) at that back post. There was one occasion where (Marc) Albrighton put a great ball in and nobody was getting to the back post. So credit to Leicester, I thought they were terrific in the second half.

"They could