Oxford 1 City 2
Report by Colin Hall
Goals from Demarai Gray and Jeffrey Schlupp proved enough to give Leicester City a 2-1 victory at League One side Oxford in the side's first pre-season friendly of 2016.
In a competitive match, played in sweltering conditions, the Premier League champions were able to make quality count after falling behind early on. Although more chances went begging than Claudio Ranieri or many in the away contingent might have liked, in overall terms both the result and performance was satisfactory.
Before the game Foxes legend Gary Lineker, Oxford's guest of honour for the evening, paraded the Premier League trophy to general acclaim from all three populated sides of the Kassam Stadium. The venue remains uncompleted after 15 years of operation, in part because the infrastructure around it is apparently not sufficiently developed to cater for a stand at the west end.
City kicked off towards the car park end with several of the regulars from last season – Fuchs, King, Albrighton and Vardy – unavailable, while academy product Hamza Choudhury was given the unenviable task of covering for the departed Kante.
Nevertheless, the visitors began the match at a high tempo, forcing the hosts into several desperate last-ditch challenges. Mahrez and Gray were particularly prominent on the flanks and looked eager to resume from where they left off at the end of the title-winning campaign.
Traffic issues around the stadium meant that fans were still making their way from the car park when Oxford took an unexpected lead after 14 minutes. Morgan mistimed a challenge on Taylor on the edge of the City box and Maguire duly punished the visitors by curling an excellent free-kick around the wall to beat Schmeichel.
City remained composed and resilient in the face of this setback, with Choudhury and Drinkwater linking well in central midfield, and Chilwell making several surging runs down the left. The Foxes stepped up the pressure and eventually forced the equaliser when Okazaki and Ulloa combined to tee up Gray, whose low shot beat home keeper Eastwood and found the net via a post.
A superb run and cross from Chilwell then found Ulloa six yards out, but the Argentine sent his header just over the bar when he would have hoped to have done better.
The visitors made five changes at the break, including the introduction of Ron-Robert Zieler (the first City goalkeeper with a World Cup winners' medal since Gordon Banks) and Luis Hernandez, plus the welcome return of Matty James after a 14-month layoff.
However, the changes had little effect on the rhythm of the side, with Okazaki being denied a strong penalty claim in the opening minutes of the half and then seeing a fine header well saved at point-blank range by Eastwood.
Schlupp, playing in an unfamiliar right-wing role, caused the home defence plenty of problems with his pace, almost forcing a breakthrough on several occasions. A further raft of changes on the hour mark, which saw record signing Ahmed Musa take the field, did little to stem the flow of one-way traffic towards the Oxford goal.
Musa wasted little time in making an impact, with one lightning-quick burst – reminiscent of Julian Joachim for older generations of Foxes – producing another superb reflex save from Eastwood.
Shortly afterwards, Schlupp found the goal that both he and his side deserved, with a blistering solo run taking him clear of the home defence before he beat Eastwood with a cool finish.
Although Oxford mounted intermittent threats in the closing stages, with Zieler being forced into saves from both Taylor and Giles, the conditions began to take their toll and City were able to see out the game with relative comfort.
While tougher challenges undoubtedly lie ahead of City in the coming weeks, Ranieri will have taken plenty of positives from the evening's events, especially with encouraging displays from the new arrivals and younger squad members alike.
With this correspondent managing to avoid enough of the post-match jams to be back in Leicester by 11.30 pm, the evening concluded on a suitably upbeat note. There is every likelihood that following Leicester on the road will continue to be an enjoyable experience during the season ahead.
City : Schmeichel (Zieler 45); Simpson (Amartey 61), Huth (Wasilewski 61), Morgan (c) (Hernandez 45), Chilwell (Elder 61); Mahrez (Schlupp 45), Drinkwater (Moore 61), Choudhury (James 45), Gray (Lawrence 45); Okazaki (Musa 61), Ulloa (Muskwe 61).
Goals: Gray 28, Schlupp 69
Oxford: Eastwood; Ribeiro (Long 73), Dunkley, Nelson (Martin 44), Skarz; Crowley (Giles 64), Lundstram (c), Rothwell, Maguire (Ashby 64); Taylor (Roberts 83), Thomas (Jeacock 83). Subs not used: Buchel, Cundy, MacDonald
Goal: Maguire 14
Attendance: 9,487 (1,109 Leicester) Referee: John Busby
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation