Europa Conference League

WESLEY FOFANA ended eight months of injury hell by heading Leicester City into the quarter-finals of the Europa Conference League.The 21-year-old Frenchman made a spectacular return from the broken leg, suffered against Villarreal in pre-season, when he cancelled out Benjamin Bourigeaud’s early opener with a soaring header.
Wesley Fofana made a goalscoring return to send Leicester through in dramatic fashionCredit: AFP
The Frenchman leapt and produced a stunning header from a cornerCredit: Reuters
The Foxes were made to suffer when sub Flavien Tait restored Rennes’ lead late on with a drilled shot which deflected in off Fofana’s studs.
But Brendan Rodgers’ heroes side grimly held on as Kasper Schmeichel defied Sehrou Guirassy with a stunning late point-blank save with his outstretched left boot as Rennes laid siege to the Dane’s goal.   
And there were ugly scenes at the end as Rennes lost the plot.
Warmed Omari was lucky to stay on the field after an over-the-ball tackle on Harvey Barnes, which he then followed up by striking James Justin twice on the face.
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And there was more mayhem on the final whistle when Hamari Traore struck James Maddison – all of which escaped the attention of the referee.
When the dust had settled Fofana was left singing in the Rennes – what a wonderful feeling.
The defender celebrated his return by scoring his first Foxes goal in his 39th appearance for the club, after last scoring for Saint-Etienne in December 2019.
Earlier Rodgers was made to feel at home as the hosts belted out Irish songs for 90 minutes prior to kick-off to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.
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However, his players faced a hostile reception from a frenzied home support, intent on roaring their heroes into a European quarter-final for the first time in their history.
Within eight minutes they had pierced Leicester’s defence to seize the early goal Rennes craved.
Adrien Truffert supplied Martin Terrier on the left and when the winger took Schmeichel out with a ferocious drilled cross, Bourigeaud stole in front of Luke Thomas to stab the ball home from close range.
Leicester were on the ropes and there was more pain to follow when Marc Albrighton suffered a groin injury in the lead up to the goal and had to be replaced by Ademola Lookman.
The Foxes tried to respond and Barnes had a shot beaten away one-handed by Rennes’ teenage stand-in goalie Dogan Alemdar.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall then lacked the pace required to punish Rennes’ exposed defence before Alemdar raced from his goal to beat Kelechi Iheanacho to Youri Tielemans’ lofted pass.
Benjamin Bourigeaud tapped in from close range as Rennes made the perfect startCredit: Reuters
Brendan Rodgers, his team and coaching staff all congratulated FofanaCredit: Getty
Flavien Tait added Rennes’ second of the night to put them back in with a chanceCredit: Alamy
Despite Rennes enjoying 71 per cent of possession, Leicester made it to half-time without Schmeichel making a save but the tie was balanced on a knife edge.
Amartey thought he had levelled just after the restart when he powered in a header from Lookman’s deep corner until Alemdar defied him with an instinctive save.
But the kid ‘keeper was powerless when Fofana scored his first goal for Leicester to seal his remarkable comeback.
Lookman swept over another corner and Fofana soared to guide his header inside the far post with Alemdar helpless.
Then came the Rennes onslaught but the Foxes, just about, stood firm to progress.
Kasper Schmeichel stepped up with another crucial save for his teamCredit: AFP
There were ugly scenes in stoppage time and after the full-time whistleCredit: Reuters
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall put in a remarkable shift in a hostile atmosphereCredit: AFP
It was a tough evening made even more difficult by Wilfred Ndidi limping offCredit: Getty More

QARABAG striker Ibrahima Wadji scored an astonishing handball goal.And it was allowed to stand until his own manager told the referee to rule it out.
Ibrahima Wadji’s slam dunk goal was initially allowed to standCredit: TWITTER
Somehow the referees did not spot the clear violation of the rulesCredit: Twitter

The forward blatantly used his first to beat Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda to the ball and punch it in basketball slam-dunk style on 34 minutes.
Incredibly, it was initially allowed to stand in the Europa Conference League play-off.
That is because the handball was missed by the referees and there is no VAR until the final.
Marseille’s players were understandably furious, with on-loan Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi reportedly following his opponent round the pitch repeatedly shouting: “You’re a cheat.”
But Wadji played dumb for a full three minutes as the protests continued.
However, then the Azerbaijani side’s gaffer Gurban Gurbanov spoke with his striker and insisted the goal was chalked off in a fantastic display of sportsmanship following his forward’s cheating.
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Wadji then did appear to confess the misdemeanour to the official who then gave a free-kick to the French side.
One said: “Full of respect for Qarabag striker Ibrahima Wadji, who has just taken advantage of there being no VAR in the Conference League by scoring like this.”
Another wrote: “Fair play to Qarabag and Wadji. No VAR, referee brutally missing a clear hand ball and would have brought them back into the tie. Very classy sportsmanship!”
Visitors Marseille led 1-0 at the time, and 4-1 on aggregate, thanks to Papa Gueye’s 12th-minute opener.
Wadji eventually admitted his handball after consulting his coachCredit: AP More