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Ranieri upbeat despite League Cup exit

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 28 Oct 2015

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Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri preferred to focus on the positives after Tuesday’s League Cup exit, praising his team’s performance at Hull City.

Ranieri and Co. were dumped out of the competition by Hull 5-4 on spot-kicks after goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic saved the first penalty of the shoot-out, denying Riyad Mahrez.

The next nine penalties were converted, with David Meyler stepping up to score and send Championship outfit Hull into the quarter-finals for the first time in their history, at the expense of Leicester, who broke the deadlock in 100th minute only for the hosts to hit back five minutes later in extra-time.

Speaking to Leicester’s official website afterwards, Ranieri remained upbeat despite the club’s elimination.

“I’m not happy with the result but I’m happy with the performance because we knew it was a tough match and we played strong,” Ranieri said.

“We tried to do our best and we scored a goal but we conceded a goal in a bad moment. We were very, very close to finishing the match with a win but we then lost the penalty shoot-out.”

Ranieri added: “Hull City at home are very good. They are second in the Championship.

“It was a good match for us and we played strongly to try to win the match. We lost the match but the performance was OK.”

Hull boss Steve Bruce, who had striker Abel Hernandez to thank after the Uruguay international cancelled out Mahrez’s late opener, said the second-tier side deserved to go through.

“We’re delighted,” said Bruce.

“It felt like it was going to be one of those nights with one or two major decisions going against us. But we’ve got through and we deserved to go through.

“The way we played, particularly in the first half, in terms of keeping possession and our movement, I thought we were terrific.”

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