Southampton defender Jannik Vestergaard hopes his performance against Leicester in the Carabao Cup will see him get more opportunities.
The Denmark international started his first club game in two months at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday night, contributing to a much-improved defensive display as Saints kept a clean sheet before losing the tie on penalties.
Vestergaard was happy with how he played and the 26-year-old wants to remain in manager Mark Hughes' thoughts for Southampton's forthcoming Premier League matches.
"Not playing is not very easy when that's what you've left your home and your family to do," Vestergaard told Saints' official website.
"That is one of the things you have to deal with as a footballer, and work on getting better and improving.
"When you get a chance, you have to grab it and make sure you show the manager and the team that they can rely on you, so I'm pleased with that."
Leicester goalkeeper Danny Ward insisted he was merely doing his job as he played down the heroics that saw the Foxes progress to the quarter finals.
Ward produced a superb fingertip save to divert Manolo Gabbiadini's late free-kick on to the crossbar to ensure the tie went to penalties, where he then denied the Southampton striker again by saving his spot-kick.
The 25-year-old has yet to concede a goal in this season's Carabao Cup and turned in another impressive display, having saved three penalties in the shoot-out victory against Wolves in the previous round.
He told LCFC TV: "That's what I'm here to do, I get paid money to keep the ball out the back of the net and thankfully I've been able to do that again.
"I felt we deserved a clean sheet in the end, I felt we defended really well.
"When it comes to penalties, you've just got to pick a way and try and read where they're going and go full throttle at it.
"There's no real secret to it, you can do all the analysis on it and look at hundreds and hundreds of penalties, but at that moment, you've got to have the feeling and thankfully I've managed to save one."
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Press Association Sport staff');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'e1d69065-47d0-45cc-a3b2-be5f6e9cdd52');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Vestergaard hopes cup display forces him into Hughes\u2019 league plans'});
