Kelechi Iheanacho has landed Leicester City into the final of this season’s English FA Cup with a lone goal on Sunday, April 18. His 55th-minute goal against Southampton at the Wembley Stadium was enough to book Leicester a date with Chelsea on 15 May 2021.
Leicester City has never played in any final since 2000 and they have never played in a FA Cup final since 1969. Hence, the coach of the club, Brendan Rodgers, says the club has gotten a chance to create history.
It took Kelechi Iheanacho until the second half of the game to give Leicester City victory over Southampton. He picked up a fine pass from Jamie Vardy and buried the ball decisively after a failed attempt. The goal gave his team a 1-0 victory in the presence of 4,000 spectators.
Leicester City secured their spot in the #EmiratesFACup Final as Kelechi Iheanacho continued his red-hot form for the Foxes! pic.twitter.com/iAJFKKYSOk
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) April 18, 2021
The goal against Southampton made it 4 times Kelechi Iheanacho has scored in the FA Cup in 5 games this season. He has also provided an assist so far in the tournament.
His fine moments in the competition started in the 5th round against Brighton. He scored the winning goal in the match which qualified Leicester for the quarter-final round.
The best of all came in the quarter-final round in which he scored two goals against Manchester United and ended the game as the man of the match.
After the victory over Southampton on Sunday, Kelechi Iheanacho said: “It is a dream come true. I watched the FA Cup when I was little and now I get the chance to play in the final.
“I think the FA Cup loves me and I love the FA Cup.”
While the coach of Southampton, Ralph Hasenhuttl who was not happy that Iheanacho’s goal ended his team’s dream of playing in the FA Cup final, described the defeat as a pity for his team.
“That such a goal decides such a game is a pity for us,” he said. “In the end, especially in the final third, we didn’t have good moments. We couldn’t get a shot on goal and this is not enough.”
As for Leicester City coach who has never won any domestic title in English football, the victory over Southampton was about “creating a memory”.
“I have been made aware since I’ve been at Leicester how important this cup is for the supporters”, he added.
“We have the chance to create history. When we arrived here, that was the ambition. From a football perspective, we wanted to be able to compete and we have been able to do that. Now we have a trophy to genuinely go for.”
