Leicester City
can at least go into 2016 with the knowledge that they have a
goalkeeper capable of keeping them in the league title race after Kasper
Schmeichel took a leaf out of his father’s book to frustrate Manchester City.
Claudio Ranieri’s team, bottom of the table on 1 January 2015, will
end the year second only to league leaders Arsenal following an
absorbing stalemate against pre-season title favourites Manchester City.
Hull in March to prevent Leciester from scoring at home, but they once
again failed to win on their travels and the hosts showed just why only
Arsenal and Liverpool have beaten them in the league this season.
Schmeichel’s array of saves were the crucial factor, though, and his
father Peter, a five-time title winner with Manchester United in the
1990s, will have enjoyed his son’s performance.
Whatever happens to Ranieri’s team over the second half of this
campaign, Leicester’s remarkable year has ensured that the team now
approaches encounters with the likes of City with the self-confidence to
go toe to toe with the Premier League’s established superpowers.
Attaining that heavyweight status themselves will take longer than
one incredible season at the sharp end of the table, but Leicester went
into this game two points clear of the visitors and the respect shown by
Manuel Pellegrini’s players was evident from the start.
Defenders Eliaquim Mangala and Nicolas Otamendi began the game with
greater focus than usual and one would instantly protect the other
whenever there was even a hint of Jamie Vardy being played through by
his team-mates.
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| Danny Simpson jostles for the ball with Raheem Sterling |
But having lost at Arsenal last week – a defeat which extended their
winless away run to five in the Premier League, making it their worst
sequence since April 2011 – Pellegrini’s team perhaps also played
with
added caution at the back in order to give themselves a platform on
which to build that long-awaited away victory.
It has been the defensive frailties that have compromised City on the road, usually in the absence of injured captain Vincent Kompany because, as they showcased in the first-half, they possess true quality going forward.
Despite Leicester’s record of having scored in each of their last 14
Premier League home games, it was the visitors who created the better
chances, with the opening 45 minutes ultimately becoming a battle of
wills between Raheem Sterling and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
Schmeichel went in at the interval having shaded his personal duel, however, by denying Sterling on numerous occasions.
The England winger saw three goalbound efforts kept out by former
City keeper Schmeichel, with a 27th minute right-handed save from a
Sterling volley the most impressive.
Sergio Aguero also saw a scuffed effort kept out by Schmeichel, with
Kevin De Bruyne another City forward frustrated by the Dane.
And after surviving City’s increasing pressure, Leicester attempted
to catch Pellegrini’s men on the counter late in the first-half.
Aside from a 25th minute strike from Riyad Mahrez which flew over Joe
Hart’s crossbar, Leicester struggled to worry the visitors until a
dangerous Christian Fuchs cross evaded Vardy before being directed wide
by Marc Albrighton at the far post.
Vardy, the Premier League’s leading scorer, then spurned a golden
chance to break the deadlock on 40 minutes when he was put through on
goal by Danny Drinkwater.
Drinkwater and Vardy had teamed up to hustle Fernandinho into a
mistake 30 yards from goal, but having broke clear, Vardy let City the
hook by shooting over the crossbar from 18 yards.
Restricting Vardy and Mahrez to just one chance apiece in the
first-half was an achievement in itself for City, with the two Leicester
attackers accounting for 28 of the 37 league goals scored by the team
ahead of this game.
Aguero should perhaps have scored the opener on 46 minutes, when he
escaped his marker before only being able to flick De Bruyne’s cross
over the bar from close range.
The Argentine remains one of the most lethal forwards to grace the
Premier League, but he was not at his best at the King Power Stadium and
he displayed little of the pace and threat of Vardy.
His recent ankle and hamstring injuries perhaps continue to trouble
the City striker, but with such a track record for scoring crucial
goals, it is understandable that Pellegrini continues to prefer him
ahead of Wilfried Bony or the teenager Kelechi Iheanacho. But when
Aguero was replaced by Bony on 63 minutes, it was not before time.
They remained finely balanced, though, thanks largely to the efforts
of Leicester midfielders Drinkwater and N’Golo Kanté, who chased and
harried constantly, affording the likes of Yaya Toure and David Silva no
time whatsoever to dictate the play.
It was becoming a game in which one goal would almost certainly
decide the outcome, and Kanté sent a right-footed shot wide from 25
yards on 54 minutes before Otamendi forced another save from Schmeichel
10 minutes later.
As the game entered the closing stages, Ranieri upped the ante by
replacing midfielder Gokhan Inler with forward Leonardo Ulloa in an
attempt to force the breakthrough.
It was a case of he who dares might win and the switch almost brought
an instant reward when Ulloa earned a free-kick on the edge of the
Manchester City penalty area following a clumsy foul by Mangala.
The set-piece was a yard outside the box and teed up perfectly for a
left-footer, but although Fuchs struck the ball well, Hart was equal to
the challenge and the England goalkeeper pushed the ball away.
Having seen Schmeichel perform a series of heroics at the other end,
it was perhaps fitting that Hart made his own decisive contribution to
save his team from defeat
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