Brendan Rodgers has humbly admitted Blackburn Rovers deserved to beat Leicester City and reach the FA Cup last eight.
Jon Dahl Tomasson's side secured their route into the quarter-finals with a magnificent display at the King Power Stadium, winning 2-1. Rovers were brave in possession and pressed aggressively from the front to shock their Premier League opponents.
That proactive approach paid off with Tyrhys Dolan pouncing on a mistake to curl in the opener. Sam Gallagher's tenacity saw him rob the Leicester defence for the second, feed Sam Szmodics and that was 2-0.
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The game should have been wrapped up by the time Kelechi Inheanacho set up a nervy ending. Despite Leicester's late pressure, Rodgers was happy to admit there was one true winner.
“Congratulations to Blackburn,” Rodgers said. “They were the better team.
"We presented them with a couple of goals, we gave the ball away cheaply for the first. Likewise with the second. The player gets through the middle of our defence far too easily.
“Then you’re chasing it. At 2-0, it’s an easy scoreline to go freely in. We showed spirit and a drive then but you have to show that when it’s 0-0 and impose your game. We weren’t able to do that sadly.
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“It’s just consistency and mentality and ambition to succeed. That’s been too up and down for us. It doesn’t help when you consistently present opportunities to teams.
“I’m really disappointed for the supporters. It’s been a real challenge for them this season. The FA Cup was an opportunity to get to a quarter-final, against a Championship team at home, but they were a lot better than us, and we have to be worried about that.
“The game for us should have been simple in terms of the idea. The idea was, whenever we didn’t have the ball, to be hungry to get it back. When you do have it, look after it and let’s see if we can play at speed to create opportunities.
Then, find that purpose. Our purpose was to get through to the quarter-final and give everything we can.
“We’ve smelled it before and we know what it means. But sadly we didn’t have the quality and that grit when defending to win the game. We thoroughly deserved to lose the game.”
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