Stockport 0-0 Leicester (1-3 on pens): Foxes survive cup scare after beating Hatters on penalties

If ever victory could be considered inglorious, here it was. Leicester City were given some light relief on Tuesday night but not much of it, requiring penalties to beat the 89th-best team in England.

Stockport County were superb all evening. Leicester less so, barely mustering a chance of note until the final 10 minutes when spot kicks loomed. And eventually they were indebted to debutant Daniel Iversen, completing three saves in the shootout, to squeeze past their lower-league hosts.

Even then, James Maddison and Ayoze Perez missed – one saved, one blazed over the bar – before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall finally finished things. They really did progression the hard way. Confidence looks at an all-time low. Everyone will fancy them in the next round at this rate.

Leicester beat Stockport 3-1 on penalties at Edgeley Park after an unconvincing performance 

Debutant Daniel Iversen rescued the Foxes with three crucial saves in the penalty shoot-out

This month could barely have gone much worse for Rodgers, who revealed that Wesley Fofana – not selected again – failed to turn up to a training session last week. Chelsea saw a third bid, £60million with an additional £10m in instalments, rejected for the defender on Tuesday.

The Foxes are holding out for a world-record fee and it remains to be seen how Fofana reacts – and whether they can reintegrate him if Chelsea walk away over finances. Fofana is now training with the Under 23s.

‘These guys get well paid, the very least you can do is turn up,’ Rodgers said. ‘You can’t then expect to walk [back] into our group. It’s important to control any distractions. I can only use players who have full commitment.’

Brendan Rodgers made 10 changes to the Foxes side that lost 2-1 to Southampton on Saturday

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored the winning penalty as Leicester advanced to the third round

Add to that a habit for blowing leads, with a single point from winning positions at home in the Premier League so far, and it does not make for an overly content camp. 

The future of Youri Tielemans, who started last night after being left out on Saturday, is still up in the air with Arsenal interested.

Rodgers bristled on the touchline, stood a few yards from Dave Challinor, the Stockport manager who had arrived at the ground long before any other soul. Challinor, a fitness fanatic, was seen doing laps of Edgeley Park and up the stairs of the main stand here in preparation for the evening.

Clearly his team – who are struggling with the acclimatisation of life back in the Football League after an 11-year absence – saw the boss putting the hard yards in, because that was replicated against their stellar opposition. 

Leicester were afforded no peace in the attacking areas that mattered and it was to Challinor’s credit that his side, much-changed themselves from a weekend defeat at Mansfield Town, went in level at the break.

Patson Daka had gone close but other than that, there was no sustained wave until very late in the day.

Iversen, making a debut six years after signing from Esbjerg, stopped smartly from Callum Camps. Later, Ollie Crankshaw’s effort whistled past Iversen’s left-hand post from distance.

Youri Tielemans and Leicester dominated the ball but ultimately struggled to breach Stockport

Stockport have only conceded fewer than two goals in one of their five League Two matches so far this term yet Leicester struggled to break them down. 

Rodgers made changes from the bench – Maddison in particular offering more threat – as they attempted to avoid penalties.

They needed them, though, after Mark Kitching hooked off the line from Dewsbury-Hall, Tielemans curled wide and Vitezslav Jaros palmed Maddison’s drive over. ‘It was a brilliant night without the dream ending,’ Challinor said. I’m really proud of the effort.’