The striker scored twice in Friday’s 2-2 draw with Preston, his first brace in more than two years, to earn City a point, despite playing in Argentina a few days ago
19:00, 03 Apr 2026Updated 19:04, 03 Apr 2026
Patson Daka scored twice for Leicester City against Preston
Patson Daka brushed off an 8,000-mile journey and stick from the stands to produce an “outstanding” performance in Leicester City’s 2-2 draw with Preston.
Daka played for Zambia in Argentina on Tuesday night and needed three flights and a car journey to get back to City’s training base on Thursday morning.
But despite the gruelling nature of his long trip back to Leicester, and after coming in for stick after he missed a penalty and a free header in the goalless draw at Watford, Daka gave one of his best-ever City performances on Friday.
He twice showed anticipation and speed to latch onto Preston mistakes and finish, his goals earning City a more-than-deserved point.
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Manager Gary Rowett said: “Pato, to say that he’s been on a flight from Argentina to Chile, Chile to Paris, Paris to England, then in a car to the training ground and training yesterday morning, to play with that much energy, it’s quite outstanding to be honest.
“With Pato, he’s got such good energy anyway, even if he’s lacking energy, his energy is still pretty high, even if you get 80 or 90 per cent of him.
“Playing against a back three, it was important that we pressed them well and we stopped them from going long early. We didn’t mind them playing through us because we felt our structure was good enough to stop that.
“Pato was outstanding. Again, he’s another player who got a little bit of stick after Watford because he had a penalty saved.
“He showed that he’s got great character, he goes out there with a smile on his face and scores two goals. I was really pleased with that.”
The point would have been enough to lift City out of the bottom three, but Portsmouth secured their own late draw at Norwich, meaning Rowett’s side remain 22nd, one point from safety.
That’s now five draws from Rowett’s eight matches in charge. They need to turn those games into victories to survive.
The manager said: “Every game we need to be winning. Every game we play like that we should be winning.
“We played Stoke and had a great chance at the end and should have won the game. Watford we should have won the game.
“Their manager came off afterwards, Ed Still, and said I’m not quite sure how you haven’t beaten us.
“Maybe at 2-1 today they think they should win the game, but I don’t think you can say that on the balance of the performance.
“But games are running out, points are getting fewer and fewer, and other teams will win games of football.
“It’s up to us. It’s how we do it. It’s making sure we stay united. But ultimately we’ve got to win games of football. If you don’t, you don’t deserve to go above other teams.
“On that performance, and on the performances I’ve seen over the period of time I’ve been here, we’ve been incredibly competitive and we should have more points than we have. We’ve got to make sure we get those points.”
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