West Brom 1 Leicester City 1 (6-7 after pens) - Report

Jay Rodriguez opened his Baggies account just 10 minutes into the game at the Hong Kong Stadium with a 20-yard cracker into the top corner.

It was an encouraging finish that suggests the 27-year-old will be able to add a much-needed goal threat to Tony Pulis’s team next season.

New loanee Ahmed Hegazi played just over an hour at centre-back with skipper Jonny Evans, and the 6ft 5in defender battled well, making several tackles and blocks.

Although there were a few communication errors at the back, they were understandable teething problems in his first game for the club.

More significant were the hints that, given time, the big centre-half could be able to back up, or even compete, with Gareth McAuley and any other defender Pulis signs this summer.

Although Sam Field missed the all-important penalty in the new ABBA shootout after the 1-1 draw, Albion’s youngsters also impressed during the second half.

But it will be Rodriguez’s goal that gets Baggies fans most excited.

The £15m signing made his debut against Slavia Prague last week in a central number 10 position, but before the match Pulis confirmed he would try the versatile forward in a number of roles in pre-season.

He started on the left in Hong Kong, a position he excelled at for Southampton in the 2013/14 season and he immediately looked more dangerous drifting in off the wing.

Five minutes in he nearly connected with a Matt Phillips cross, and then 10 minutes in he lit up the Hong Kong Stadium with a 20-yard screamer into the top corner.

Leicester were guilty of standing off the England international, who picked his spot with the sort of clinical finishing Albion have been in desperate need of for the past two seasons.

Hegazi, who started the game in place of the injured McAuley after gaining international clearance, made several impressive early tackles.

But 24 minutes in Riyad Mahrez, who has been linked with a move to Roma this summer, capitalised on some sloppy Albion passing to equalise for the Foxes.

Picking up a Matt Phillips pass that was too high for Claudio Yacob, the Algerian drove towards goal and, using a clever run from Shinji Okazaki that took Evans away and blocked Hegazi, he fired a low shot past Ben Foster into the bottom right corner.

Leicester grew into the game after that, and might have won a penalty 38 minutes when Jake Livermore went to ground after the ball popped out to Wilfred Ndidi, but the appeals were waved away.

Although Hegazi was playing well, too many balls were coming through the middle of Albion’s defence, and Foster was forced to rush off his line to smother the ball at Islam Slimani’s feet after a pin-point 50-yard pass from Yohan Benaloune.

Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare made 10 subs around half-time, before Pulis had made any, highlighting the difference in squad strength and size between these two clubs that are supposed to be mid-table rivals.

But the Baggies did bring on James McClean, Field, Nacer Chadli, Hal Robson-Kanu and Jonathan Leko shortly after half-time.

Hegazi’s promising debut came to an end shortly after, when Pulis brought teenage full-back Kane Wilson on and shifted Craig Dawson into the middle, as the game settled down to the slow kind of tempo associated with pre-season.

Jamie Vardy grazed Foster’s post from a narrow angle and Chadli had a free-kick safely gathered by Ben Hamer, but apart from that, there was little goalmouth action in the final stages of the game.

However, Albion’s youngsters did catch the eye before the game went to penalties, and held their own against a strong Leicester outfit.

Rekeem Harper joined the fray with 15 minutes to go, and the strong 17-year-old impressed in central midfield with a couple of nice touches, while Leko dazzled on the wing.

Field looked assured in midfield and Wilson was comfortable in his preferred right-back position.

The game went straight to penalties with no extra-time. There was a new routine for the takers, with the tournament trialling the new ABBA system where the second team take two penalties in a row like a tennis tie-break in order to negate the benefit of going first.

Chadli opened the scoring before Leonardo Ulloa equalised and Vardy put Leicester ahead.

Hal Robson-Kanu stroked his penalty home before Evans put Albion ahead with a spot-kick into the corner.

Christian Fuchs levelled it at 3-3 before Danny Drinkwater’s penalty squeezed over the line after Foster got a hand to it.

Dawson, who used to take penalties for England Under-21s, roofed his emphatically before McClean put Albion 5-4 ahead.

Leicester’s new signing Vicente Iborra levelled it up and then Andy King put the Foxes ahead.

Leko made it 6-6, but then Field’s penalty down the middle was saved by Hamer, giving Marc Albrighton the chance to send Leicester through to the final, which he took with aplomb.

Albion will now play the loser of this afternoon’s match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace on Saturday. Kick-off is 11am UK time.

Teams:

Albion: Foster; Dawson, Hegazi (Wilson 66), Evans (c), Nyom; Phillips (leko 55), Livermore (Harper 77), Yacob (Chadli 55), Rodriguez (McClean 51), Brunt (Field 51); Rondon (Robson-Kanu 55).

Unused subs: Myhill, O'Shea, Melbourne, Roberts.

Leicester: Hamer, Elder (Simpson 45), Maguire (Morgan 45), Benaloune (Moore 45), Amartey (Fuchs 45), Lawrence (Iborra 48), Ndidi (King 44), James (c) (Drinkwater 44), Mahrez (Albrighton 48), Slimani (Ulloa 44), Okazaki (Vardy 44).

Unused subs: Schmeichel, Musa, Barnes.