Leicester to bench European ambition with focus on Tottenham – Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers insisted Leicester would put thoughts of a possible first European final to one side to focus fully on Sunday’s trip to Tottenham in the Premier League.

Next Thursday the Foxes will play for a place in the Europa Conference League final after a 1-1 draw with Jose Mourinho’s Roma in the semi-final first leg this week, a match in which they were disappointed not to take further advantage of the opportunities they created.

It is a tantalising prospect and the Europa League ticket on offer to the tournament winners is Leicester’s only realistic chance of securing European football for next season, but Rodgers now wants all attention to be on facing Antonio Conte’s side this weekend.

“After last night, you watch the game and then you draw a line,” Rodgers said. “Then it’s just a straight line connecting to Tottenham.

“That’s it. I respect every game we play. We’ll fight for the points. We’ll have a lot of supporters travelling down so we have a duty to them to give everything we can and that’s our focus.”

Rodgers said he was looking forward to the challenge of playing in Tottenham’s stadium in front of a full house for the first time and will take that on with confidence after listening to Mourinho’s post-match comments on Thursday night.

The Portuguese, who was Chelsea boss when Rodgers worked in the Blues’ academy, said Leicester were a side who played the same way whether at home or away – remarks Rodgers took as a compliment.

“I took great pride in that,” he said. “I want to develop a team to go and play in any stadium with no fear. He mentioned last night we didn’t think we would change and sit back, we would go and play how we want to play.

“It makes me happy to do that. You have to play with confidence