Leicester 0-2 Slavia Prague: Shocking home defeat sees lacklustre Foxes knocked out of Europa League

With Slavia Prague on top and heading for a famous victory, Kasper Schmeichel bellowed ‘get a grip of the game, ref!’ at Dutch official Serdar Gozubuyuk. The Leicester captain might as well have been talking to his team-mates.

Slavia celebrated their deserved win with raucous cheers, selfies and a video call with their former team-mate, West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek. 

But Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers – who marks two years in the job today/on Friday – was left to rue the decision to keep Harvey Barnes, Timothy Castagne and Ricardo Pereira on the bench until the hour mark, possibly with one eye on Sunday’s midday kick-off against Arsenal here. 

Slavia Prague inflicted a shock 2-0 defeat on Leicester to knock them out of the Europa League

The visitors from the Czech Republic deserved their win against a Leicester side lacking verve

Lukas Provod (rights) tucks home past Kasper Schmeichel (left) to put Slavia Prague 1-0 ahead

Nineteen-year-old Abdallah Sima (left) then put the match beyond Leicester and scored for 2-0

Caglar Soyuncu (no 4) should have given Leicester the lead after two minutes but fired high

With James Maddison also out with a possible recurrence of a hip injury, those who started failed to take their chance as second-half goals from Lukas Provod and Abdallah Sima sent Slavia into the last 16, after last week’s first leg ended goalless.

Leicester were flat here, and Rodgers knows an instant reaction is required against Arsenal, who also have little turnaround time after beating Benfica in Athens on Thursday.

‘It’s my responsibility,’ said Rodgers. ‘I pick the team and it didn’t work as well as I would have liked. They deserved to go through and we have to learn from that. We weren’t good enough.

‘We wanted to do well in the Europa League but it wasn’t to be. Now we can go all-in in the league and FA Cup.’

Though Slavia controlled most of the game, it might have been different had Leicester not wasted a good early chance. Cengiz Under, making a rare start, sneaked around the back and when his shot was parried, Caglar Soyuncu put the rebound high and wide.

Soyuncu then misjudged a long punt over the top from Nicolae Stanciu and headed it into the path of Sima, who volleyed just wide.

Urged on by an increasingly vocal bench, the visitors moved ahead in the 49th minute. Stanciu swung over a deep cross and Provod kept his nerve to convert it on the volley.

Leicester rallied after the triple change but Slavia sealed the tie 11 minutes from time when Sima arrowed a low shot beyond Schmeichel from 25 yards.

Roma loanee Cengiz Under (left) made a rare start and could have put the Foxes ahead early

Jamie Vardy vents his frustration at wasting a decent chance by booting an advertising board

Slavia Prague striker Jan Kuchta (right) misses a golden opportunity to score by heading wide 

Hamza Choudhury (left) goes down after a challenge in the box but does not win a penalty