Leicester City named 'best team' remaining as midfielder singled out by PSV boss

Leicester City are the best team remaining in the Europa Conference League, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is the player who can take them all the way to the trophy.

That was the view from PSV striker Eran Zahavi and manager Roger Schmidt after Thursday evening’s game in which City knocked out the Dutch title hopefuls with a late comeback, James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira scoring inside the final 15 minutes at Philips Stadion.

City take on Roma in the next round, and if they come through two legs against Jose Mourinho’s side, they will then head to Albania at the end of May to take on Feyenoord or Marseille. Zahavi believes they have what it takes.

The PSV goalscorer said: “Leicester is a very good team. They play offensive football, they send a lot of players to the offence. I think they are maybe the best team in this competition. Basically, if we won, we could go through to the end.”

Manager Schmidt, who will leave PSV at the end of the season to take over at Benfica, was not quite so eager to label City as the best side remaining in the competition. He said the “probably” are, but needed to prove it.

But when asked which City player he could see as having a vital role in a potential run to the trophy, the German picked out Dewsbury-Hall. It’s yet more high praise for the midfielder, who played a decisive role in the winning goal, threading the ball into the box for Ademola Lookman.

Schmidt said: “I think they are the team with the highest budget, with the highest market value, and probably the best team, but they have to show it in the next round. It is a top team from the Premier League, even if they are not in a top position at the moment.

“They have a great squad, a good coach, a good plan, and that was obvious