Leicester Deserved More

 

Claudio Ranieri praised Leicester's desire in their Community Shield defeat to Manchester United, although he was left feeling disappointed by the nature of the loss at Wembley. The Premier League champions were within seven minutes of a penalty shoot-out for the 94th Shield after a stirring second-half comeback saw Jamie Vardy cancel out Jesse Lingard's opener.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's header seven minutes from time shattered the Foxes' hopes of adding to last season's top-flight crown as United won the trophy for the 21st time in their history. However, Ranieri highlighted the positives from an encouraging display from the champions.

He said “I am pleased with our performance, we are still in pre-season and we played against a big team. I think we at least deserved to play a penalty shoot-out, but this is football. I'm very pleased with our performance. I have congratulated my players. We aren't ready yet to play as we did last season but we played well, especially in the second half.  Maybe in the first half we were a little shy because it was so hot and difficult to run. In the second half we pushed a lot and we tried to score. We did and I think at the minimum we deserved to arrive at the penalty shootout. I'm very proud and I'm very happy because we worked so hard. I told the players that we aren't ready yet, but give me 120 per cent. Help each other and run for your team-mates. They did this and I'm very pleased. For our fans, when they watch the players fight until the end, they are happy. They understand that not always we can win, but they'll always watch the squad fight until the end.”