Leicester City 2 Manchester City 2
The FA Cup 3rd round tie against the millionaires of Manchester City had all the likely ingredients for a great occasion at the Walkers Stadium:
– A full house for both home and away fans.
– Lots of back stories prior to the kick-off to add a little spice: most notably Ericsson and Fazackerley matched against their old club, Mancini matched against his old club, and Mancini against his old mentor, Ericsson.
– Live TV cameras.
– The prospect of a giant-killing performance. But could Leicester deliver a performance to match?
The answer was a thrilling and resounding "yes"! Indeed, the 31,200 who were there, plus the others watching live on TV were treated to an old-fashioned "proper cup tie".
Despite six changes, Mancini picked a strong team, with Jo leading the line, Tevez free to roam, Milner and Wright-Phillips providing plenty of pace. Vieira may have slowed from his prime, but he is still a strong and capable player, and a back four of Boateng, Toure, Lescott and Kolarov with the England 'keeper behind them is not bad either!
Ericsson picked what is, in effect, his current "first XI", with one novelty: Sol Bamba making his debut at centre half.
In the list of football clichés, the next requirement for a "proper cup tie" is for the underdogs to score first. Well, Manchester City kicked off and 48 seconds later, Bamba touched the ball for the first time as a City player … and scored……
City's short corner routine from the left led to a cross from Gallaher which was not dealt with by the Manchester defence, and Samba put the ball over the line: 1-0 to Leicester.
Leicester dominated for the first ten minutes. They were quicker to the ball and passed well, and after only four minutes a Hobbs header forced a decent save from Hart in the Manchester goal. But Manchester eventually settled, and began to show some of the quality they have to offer.
Milner was particularly lively and it was not a great surprise when, after 20 minutes, a simple through-ball split the Leicester defence, leaving Milner one-on-one with Weale, who he beat easily to make it 1-1.
The remainder of the first half had a pattern of tidy play by Leicester, including three or four other decent attempts from crosses, each requiring blocks or saves by the busy Hart. Manchester, on the other hand, created fewer chances, but better ones. On the relatively few occasions when they threatened the Leicester defence, the pace of the movement by their players showed a real difference in class between the Premier League and the Championship.
As the half continued, Tevez dropped deeper and deeper, and became more influential, blazing over a decent shooting effort from 20 yards after half an hour. Not to be out-done, Abe – who had tackled and chased tenaciously throughout – let fly a shot from nearer 25 yards which Hart did well to tip away for yet another corner.
With five minutes left to go in the half, it was time for the clichéd comment "now would be a good time to score", and for a few seconds it looked as though Leicester would oblige. A lofted through ball left King one-on-one with Hart, with plenty of time, but the angle was not perfect and King's attempt to lob the England 'keeper was a little disappointing.
Into stoppage time, and Manchester got a corner on the right. This led to a fierce, low cross which Tevez deflected into the goal with a delightful flick: 2-1 to Manchester City, more or less on the stroke of half time.
The Leicester fans rightly gave their team rousing applause as they left the field. They had played well, but surely the class of the opposition would be good enough to hold out now a lead had been established?
Even the half-time entertainment had a little, erm, glitz about it. It was good to see Greg Cunningham have a chance to say nice things about his time as a Leicester player, albeit from crutches. But then a real "premier league" star from Leicester appeared to say a few words: Engelbert Humperdinck no less. I was a little disappointed, though, that he did not get to lead the Kop in a few choruses.
Manchester City brought on de Jong for Wright-Phillips at half time, reverting to a more discernible 4-5-1 formation rather than the fluid 4-3-3 of the first half. Tevez moved forwards, swapping with the largely ineffectual Jo as target man.
Leicester again opened the half very well: with Vassell shooting wide in the first minute after being released by a Gallaher pass. The next 10 minutes produced two more saves by Hart following Leicester corners, and a free header by Hobbs (from, of course, yet another corner) which flew just over the bar.
Manchester fashioned a couple of chances, too. But generally, they appeared now to be playing to hold onto their lead. Their fans shouting "Olé" as moves of 20 or 30 passes were played out, without much threat.
This was a key moment for Leicester and a lesser team, or perhaps even Leicester on a different day, might have begun to think that the extra class of the opposition would squeeze the game out. But, instead and to their immense credit, Leicester started passing the ball even better themselves, giving the home crowd a chance to add ironic "Olés" of their own, as Leicester passed around and through the Manchester midfield.
And from one such move, Gallaher found a bit of space on the left and sent over a decent cross for the Leicester forwards to chase. No-one could get a touch on the ball, which bounced through to Hart who, for some reason, fumbled it – gifting the chance for Andy King to tap the ball into the net from a few yards: 2-2! It was a soft goal, but Leicester's tenacity against the odds meant they deserved it.
For the next five minutes, it was all Leicester, and Manchester themselves did well not to concede a further goal as Leicester passed and ran with real purpose.
In the 73rd minute, Mancini replaced Jo with Zabaleta – a very defensive substitution, but it served to steady Manchester, with Zabaleta looking calm and organised for the remainder of the match. City appeared to be about to replace Gallaher with Waghorn; indeed the stadium announcer had already announced the change, but instead Gallaher stayed on to take yet another corner, which resulted in yet another headed chance saved by Hart. Then, Waghorn did, indeed, come on, but replacing Dyer instead.
As the game entered its final 10 minutes, Leicester were the more attacking side, but Manchester still looked capable of quick and dangerous breaks. One of these led to a low cross from the left which looked certain to lead to a goal, but Weale made an outstanding low save (one of the very few he needed to make all match), and the danger passed.
After 83 minutes, Howard replaced Vassell – with the departing, ex-Manchester City striker getting great applause from both sets of fans.
The Leicester fans were still howling for their team to get a winner, whilst the Manchester fans remained almost silent. Both sides created half-chances, an injured Berner was replaced for the final minute by Nielson, then it was all over. A 2-all draw.
It was, indubitably, "a proper cup tie".
Leicester played very very well. Each player did their bit, but Bamba was towering in every sense of the word. He is a big man. He scored with his first touch. He had numerous other goal-bound attempts. He defended strongly, making Jo appear ordinary and closing Tevez down whenever needed. Hobbs, too, played very well. Abe and Wellens bossed the midfield – so much so that most of Manchester's attacks came from long diagonal balls for their fast wingers to chase. Gallaher crossed very well all game, and battled well too. It was an excellent performance all round, which must have made Ericsson proud.
Manchester City oozed class on occasions, but those occasions were few and far between. Tevez was outstanding. For a player who, apparently, does not even want to be here, his constant movement and chasing and tackling made him stand out. Milner played very well in the first half, but faded. Manchester's other "star" on the day was 'keeper Hart, ironic given that his blunder gifted the equaliser.
There was a great showing by the Manchester City fans, the vast majority of whom wore red & black scarves in honour of former player Neil Young who has sadly just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. They made a huge amount of noise before kickoff, and when their team were leading, but it is a tribute to how uncomfortable Leicester made their team feel that they were strangely quiet for long portions of the game.
The City fans loved it, highlights being the first (and surely not the last) rendition of "Sol, Sol Bamba" to (roughly) the tune of La Bamba, and the response when Mancini shaped to kick a ball, but missed it – prompting a chorus of "Leicester reject", which even Roberto himself laughed at. Roll on the replay!
Leicester City: Weale, Naughton, Hobbs, Bamba, Berner (Neilson 90), Abe, Wellens, King, Dyer (Waghorn 79), Vassell (Howard 83), Gallagher.Subs Not Used: Teixeira, Oakley, Logan, Moussa
Manchester City: Hart, Boateng, Toure, Lescott, Kolarov, Wright-Phillips (De Jong 46), Milner, Vieira, Adam Johnson, Jo (Zabaleta 73), Tevez.Subs Not Used: Given, Santa Cruz, Boyata, Nimely, Ibrahim
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