29 December 2024
Leicester 0 Man City 2
The Foxes were struggling for points of late but as they welcomed Man City to the King Power Stadium, they had an air of confidence given Guardiola’s side were struggling to find any sort of form themselves. Vardy returned to the hosts’ line-up to face a team that he had an impressive scoring record against. It was all set up for a thrilling encounter.
Man City dominated possession as you would expect, stretching the hosts all over the pitch. Lewis had the ball in the middle of the park and clipped a pass over the defence for De Bruyne. He superbly cut it back from the byline on the half-volley to find Haaland. The striker got a first-time shot away but it was saved by the feet of Stolarczyk.
As another attack broke down for the visitors The Foxes started to string some one-touch passes together. They transitioned from defence into attack quickly and a pass was threaded in behind the City defence for Vardy to run onto. He took the ball around the advancing Ortega before the keeper wiped him out and The Foxes appealed for the penalty.
The referee was saved a difficult decision as the assistant raised their flag for offside. The replay showed that the veteran striker had just set off a little early in his pursuit of the ball. Despite this, Leicester would take confidence from the way they opened up Guardiola’s side in the process. The visitors looked unsettled at the back.
Gvardiol then looked to head the ball back to his keeper but while the intention was there, it was massively underhit. It allowed Vardy to ghost in, take it wide of the keeper and get a shot off at goal from a tight angle. Ortega recovered well to block at the expense of a corner. This really woke up the home fans and it was a cauldron of noise at the King Power.
That was before the hosts imploded. Foden got a shot away from outside of the box and Stolarczyk got down well to save. However, his parry put the ball back into the danger area and Savinho reacted quickest as he raced in to slot it past the keeper and give Man City the lead. Whatever goalkeeper coaches are teaching top-flight keepers now is just inviting trouble.
The goal silenced the home faithful and gave the visitors some confidence that they could get back to winning ways. One of the reasons why The Foxes are many peoples’ pick to be one of the three sides to go down this season is that they just look so disjointed in defence. After all, before his injury Hermansen had been making Leicester’s scorelines look more flattering all season.
Van Nistelrooy’s side were still pushing forward looking to create chances. El-Khannouss swung in a teasing cross in behind the defence along the six yard box. It evaded three Leicester players, none of whom could get the telling touch to put it into the back of the net. The hosts were so close to pegging back Man City with the perfect reply to falling behind.
Just before the interval, Haaland showed a side of his game we have rarely seen. He went on a mazy run into the box, shifting it from one foot to the other to meander past The Foxes defence. What was more surprising was that when he finally made some space for the shooting opportunity, he dragged his effort wide of the near post by the tightest of margins.
The match was end to end stuff by this stage. Mavididi got a cross into the box that Gvardiol could only half-clear. Justin’s header was blocked but as Buonanotte got a looping header away, he was left frustrated as it struck the post and came back out into play. The Foxes had spurned their fair share of chances in the first-half and only had themselves to blame for heading in at the break trailing.
After the interval the hosts looked to get forward some more. A great pass picked out Buonanotte in the box, who dummied a shot to see Ake commit to a sliding challenge. The Foxes’ playmaker went to ground claiming that he was brought down by the City defender. The referee was not interested and VAR did not intervene to reverse the decision.
Leicester were putting Guardiola’s side under the cosh and Justin met another cross to send a header goalwards. Ortega was beaten but fortunately for the visitors Akanji was on the line to clear. By this stage The Foxes were wondering what they had to do to finally score in this game. It was backs to the wall time for Man City.
Mavididi did well out on the left and clipped a ball into the box to pick out Vardy. With only the keeper to beat, the Leicester striker opted for a volley and lifted it over the crossbar. You wondered whether he would have been better off going for a diving header and the groans from the home fans told you that they expected more from him.
Savinho then topped off an impressive performance when his cross from the left wing picked out a completely unmarked Haaland in the box. It was a simple chance that the Norwegian headed into the far corner of the goal to secure the win for Pep Guardiola’s side. Another harsh example of why The Foxes will struggle to survive at this level.
Man City took all the points to take a step closer to their recovery from some woeful form. Guardiola has already ruled his side out of a title race but we all know this is just mind games. There are plenty of games left for this title race to take another twist. Van Nistelrooy still has plenty of work to do to get his Foxes’ side firing on all cylinders this season.
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