Stockport County 0-0 Leicester City (1-3 on pens): Foxes edge past League Two side

Stockport County's Antoni Sarcevic has his penalty saved by Leicester City's Daniel IversenImage source, Reuters
Image caption,

Daniel Iversen made his first-team debut for Leicester after six years with the club

Leicester City goalkeeper Daniel Iversen saved three penalties on his debut for the Premier League club to earn the Foxes a Carabao Cup shootout win against League Two Stockport.

Iversen was the hero as the Foxes prevailed 3-1 in a chaotic shootout, in which James Maddison and Ayoze Perez missed for the Foxes.

The keeper also crucially denied Callum Camps in normal time, which ended 0-0.

Despite victory, Leicester are still yet to win in 90 minutes this season.

Danish goalkeeper Iversen, 25, had to wait six years to make his first-team bow for the Foxes, but ensured it would be one that would live long in the memory as a much-changed Leicester were pushed to the brink by a side 69 places below them in the English football pyramid.

Leicester controlled 78% possession and took 26 shots - of which eight were on target - with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall having a chance cleared off the line and Youri Tielemans shooting wide late on.

Harvey Barnes was the only Foxes player that started in Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Southampton to maintain his place for the midweek cup tie with fourth-tier Stockport.

Leicester were still strong, however, with Tielemans and Kelechi Iheanacho starting after both came on as substitutes at the weekend, while Maddison dropped to the bench having scored the opener against Saints.

But again there was no sight of Wesley Fofana.

The 21-year-old centre-back was left out against Saints amid ongoing Chelsea interest which saw the Foxes turn down a third bid - believed to be between £60m and £70m - in the build-up to Tuesday's trip to Edgeley Park.

Last season's National League champions Stockport, who themselves made six changes, were put under immense first-half pressure, but possession did not translate into any meaningful chances for Brendan Rodgers' top-flight side.

It took a diving save from Iversen to stop the packed crowd of 10,301 at Edgeley Park from celebrating the Hatters' first home EFL Cup goal for 15 years, with an opener that would have been completely against the run of play.

And while Leicester pressed relentlessly for a winner in normal time, Stockport held on to take the game to penalties only for Iversen to foil them in the shootout before Dewsbury-Hall eventually sealed Leicester's place in the third round.

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers told BBC Radio Leicester:

"We didn't play quick enough and obviously in the final third of the pitch it was a little slow.

"We didn't speed up in that area of the field until we brought on James Maddison and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and that last 15-20 minutes there was a lot more aggression in our game.

"We didn't create too much and the individual quality in the final third wasn't quite there.

[On Daniel Iversen] "The things he had to do he did well - I've been really impressed with Daniel - his focus, concentration and he's really matured as a goalkeeper now."

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