Brendan Rodgers: Aston Villa draw 'wasn't the performance I wanted' | OneFootball

Brendan Rodgers reserved huge praise for second-half substitute Hamza Choudhury, who he felt make the difference as Leicester fought back to earn a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals.

Despite visibly being the better side for most of the match, Villa went into the intermission with the advantage thanks to a 28th-minute goal from Frédéric Guilbert and a strong performance by goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland.

Nyland would face 21 shots and make five saves but Kelechi Iheanacho would get one past him in the 74th minute to make it level heading into the second leg in roughly three weeks time.

Choudhury, who came on for Dennis Praet at the break, made the key interception that led to the goal and Rodgers was delighted with his impact off the bench.

“We dominated the game but we were passive in the first half, played too slow. It was all a bit slow,” Rodgers told Sky Sports. “We didn’t press the game enough.

“The goal we conceded, we have to be stronger, but we stayed calm and sped up the game, made more runs off the ball. Second half we were very good, they made some great blocks to stop us winning the game. Credit to them, they made it very difficult.

“Hamza Choudhury made a huge difference, it’s my fault that I didn’t start him. We could see that we needed him and he gave us our identity back.

“Wilfred Ndidi is so good for us, he’s colossal, and we were too slow and not aggressive without him or Hamza.

“It should be a good second leg, all square and a boisterous crowd, a full house. But it wasn’t the performance I wanted. Leicester were the better team, but we defended well at times.

“We have to be honest, they created chances as well. We were loose on the ball and we’ve got to do better. I’m certainly content with a draw, just not the performance.

“We gave away a farcical goal. Ezri Konsa has got brain dazzled. It’s a disappointing goal, but it sums up some of our performance on the night.”