Leicester City 0 – 1 Cardiff City
Report by Stuart Dawkins
If you missed today’s match because of the Christmas period, don’t worry you’ve seen pretty much all of it before this season.
A visiting team of very limited skill playing for a draw from the very beginning of the match, with tactics that amounted to staying behind the ball and throwing their bodies in front of shots? Yep, seen that.
A visiting goalkeeper making a succession of decent saves from Leicester shots? Yep, seen that too.
Leicester completely dominating the midfield, and yet not creating many clear-cut chances? Yep.
A visiting player given time to shoot from 20-plus yards and beating Schmeichel at the far post? We see that regularly, so it seems
In fact, the structure of the match and the result had an air of almost inevitability after the excellent performances and results against Chelsea and Manchester City.
Let’s start with the good bit though: Birch gave a well-deserved tribute to Cardiff City and the Cardiff fans for the way they had handled the away fixture, immediately following the helicopter accident. That, rightly, draw a standing ovation from the full Home crowd.
The match then started, with Söyüncü and Gray replacing Morgan and Choudhury, neither of whom were on the bench. Arguably, the most entertaining bit of the first half came in the second minute, when the referee inadvertently brought down Maddison in midfield, to amusement all round.
Cardiff’s attacking threat was limited almost entirely to ‘bashing it up to the big un’ or long throws, from either flank, by Gunnarsson. The visitors did, however, have the first chance of the match when a decent a cross was headed over, but then it was one-way traffic, with Leicester playing ‘attack’ against Cardiff’s ‘defence’.
Whilst completely dominating the visitors in both possession and attempts on goal, it was rare that Leicester looked like beating an in-form Etheridge in the Cardiff goal. He made good saves from a Maddison long-shot, from Ricardo, Vardy and Gray – but each were the kind of save you’d expect an in-form ‘keeper to make. Cardiff offered no attacking threat at all and ran down the clock at every opportunity – the very epitome of a well-drilled Neil Warnock team.
The second half started in a slightly livelier fashion, with the teams trading chances, and yet another decent Etheridge save from Pereira. As in the first half, the most entertaining moment involved the referee, Simon Hooper (who, overall was OK – neither conspicuously good or bad). An Albrighton corner had drifted straight out of play for a goal kick. Etheridge either genuinely did not realise this, or feigned not to realise it, and was told on five or six occasions to take the kick from inside the six-yard box, before the ref’s patience ran out and he booked him for time-wasting.
Puel brought on Ghezzal in the 58th minute, which I thought a good thing, but he brought him on for Albrighton – who had been his usual industrious self – rather than for Gray who, a couple of long-distance shots aside, had achieved little.
Söyüncü had had a fine game – almost flawless in dealing with what little Cardiff threw at him, but in the 66th minute he totally mis-hit a pass setting up the best chance of the game for Cardiff, but the resulting shot was smothered by Schmeichel.
A minute later, Puel brought on Iheanacho for Vardy, to boos from some sections of the crowd. I don’t really understand booing a player who tries hard, as Iheanacho does; it can hardly be expected to boost his confidence. Iheanacho is not, and probably never will be, an accomplished lone striker, so it was no surprise that he had minimal impact on the game.
And so, we then saw another thing that we have seen a lot this season …
… Leicester having hardly any attacking threat when Vardy is not on the pitch? Yep, seen that.
It might have been different though: Maddison twisted and turned in the box, received a return pass and was fouled for a penalty. In Vardy’s absence, he took the kick himself. It was not an awful penalty (unlike the one he took in the shoot-out against Manchester City), but it was hit predictably from a short run-up, and I suspect few home fans were completely surprised when Etheridge saved it quite comfortably, and somehow Sol Bamba beat Maddison to a rebound he really should have got to first, clearing the ball to safety.
A few minutes later Gray was replaced by Okazaki. City huffed and puffed, with both Ghezzal and Pereira trying hard and having decent efforts blocked, but still could not blow Cardiff’s house down.
In the final ten minutes, Cardiff began to build some pressure, and as 90-minutes appeared on the clock they had three presentable chances in a row. The time-wasting to take their own corner in stoppage-time showed how limited their ambitions were, and 0-0 looked by far the most likely score.
Then we saw the final déjà vu moment: with Camarasa hitting a fine 25-yard shot past Schmeichel in the 94th minute. The visitors even managed another good chance before the final whistle, but Schmeichel saved that.
It was a curious Leicester performance. No-one played particularly badly. Maddison rang rings around the Cardiff midfield for much of the game, but – a couple of long-distance shots aside – only looked like creating anything meaningful when linking up with Vardy. Ndidi and Mendy looked strong in getting the ball, but – Ndidi in particular- rarely did much creative with it. And yet, the penalty and its rebound aside, Cardiff created the better-quality chances in the match.
Vardy aside, Leicester’s most aggressive striking options now seem to come from their right-back – Ricardo – and that does not say much for the team’s attacking abilities.
The final mention goes right back to the beginning: praise for the Cardiff fans. They made a lot of noise throughout the match and were understandably ecstatic at the way the match ended. They will have to hope that Etheridge remains unbeatable for many more matches, however, if they are to stay out of a relegation battle playing in this style
Leicester: Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Söyüncü, Maguire, Chilwell, Mendy, Ndidi, Albrighton, Maddison, Gray, Vardy. Subs: Simpson, Iheanacho, Ward, Okazaki, Iborra, Fuchs, Ghezzal
Cardiff: Etheridge. Ecuele Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Cunningham, Gunnarsson, Hoilett, Camarasa, Arter, Murphy, Paterson. Subs: Peltier, Bennett, Ralls, Smithies, Reid, Mendez-Laing, K Harris
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