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Rodgers hails ‘outstanding’ Leicester and outlines his target for the season

Brendan Rodgers was delighted with his Leicester side’s performance as they secured a Premier League opening day 1-0 win over Wolves.

The Foxes were already flying high following their Community Shield success against Manchester City last week. They were welcomed back to a full King Power Stadium for the first time since that and their FA Cup win back in May.

And the fans were treated to another victory thanks to Jamie Vardy’s first half strike.

Speaking after the full-time whistle, Rodgers told BBC Sport: “We had a really good pre-season and today we wanted to deliver. We played really well first half, some of the football we played was outstanding, and we didn’t have too many problems.

“Second half we defended more and we could have made the game more comfortable. But to keep a clean sheet and play to that level was really pleasing.”

Leicester’s home form let them down last season and ultimately cost them what seemed to be a nailed on Champions League spot.

They managed to pick up 10 points more in away fixtures. However, the return of the supporters could rectify that, with Rodgers crediting them for today’s result.

“The fans gave us the energy. You see the connection the players have with the support, and they got us over the line,” he added.

The Northern Irishman has suffered heartbreaking conclusions to the past two Premier League seasons, having also narrowly missed out on a Champions League spot in 2019/20 too.

His goal would appear to be to make it third time lucky, although he admits the competition is very high.

He said: “We’re just out to do our very best. If you look at some other clubs and what they’re spending, we’re nowhere near that level. I just hope we can keep developing. If we can progress again this year I’ll be happy and we’ll see where that takes us.”

Lage confident despite defeat

Meanwhile, new Wolves boss Bruno Lage expressed faith in his system despite their defeat.

The Portuguese manager said: “It was my feeling [that Wolves would equalise in the second half]. We had a good moment and we started to control the game. In the first half we had a good chance to score then two or three minutes later they scored.

“But at the break I said it could come us to. If we played inside [Leicester’s half] then we would create chances, and we did that playing against a strong team who have just won a trophy and were playing with three centre-backs.

“We started the second half well and they reacted, moving to three centre-backs. We tried to put more players between the lines.

“I’m not happy because we deserved more than we got. But I have confidence in the way we are and what we are doing.”

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