Wolves 0 City 0
Report by Kate Thompson
On a wet and windy night, but fortunately not a cold one, we made our way to a ground where success recently has been in short supply; after all, who could forget last season’s 4-3 reverse? This was quite a different affair, ending in a goalless draw and Wolves having a goal disallowed after a VAR check, the exact same result as the home match on the first day of the season.
It was an unchanged City team, with Choudhury replacing the much-missed Ndidi as the defensive midfielder. City started quite brightly and the pre-match concern with problems that Traore would create for Ben Chilwell were forgotten as he was on the bench until the 64th minute.
Neither goalkeeper had much to do, Patricio having to punch away a deflected header from Pereira and Kasper having to be alert to crosses with so many tall attackers.
In the 44th minute Wolves scored what appeared to be a perfectly good goal, only for VAR to rule that another player was marginally offside. The decision took ages and led to a chorus of catcalls, especially from the Wolves fans.
In the 60th minute Maddison was brought down in the box for what looked like a nailed-on penalty; there was another VAR check, which must have been the shortest on record! According to one Leicester fan, the BBC was saying that it was a penalty but none of the match reports appear to have mentioned it.
The introduction of the pacey Traore gave Wolves a lift and it was backs to the wall stuff for the rest of the match. Rather surprisingly, the match stats make interesting reading. City had 59% possession and although Wolves had 15 shots to Leicester’s nine, both teams only had three on target.
Wolves committed more fouls than Leicester but we had three yellow cards to their two – Choudhury, Maddison and Chilwell. Choudhury then received another yellow, so was sent off, apparently our first red card this season. It seemed very harsh and neither foul merited a yellow card; I thought the club might appeal but it seems that no appeal against two yellow cards is allowed.
City shut up shop and Evans and Soyuncu were immense in protecting the goal; the latter blocked a late shot, which looked goal bound. Fortunately, the Wolves attackers were frequently off target when you would have expected them to score.
Albrighton replaced Perez in the 68th minute, Praet came on for Tielemans in the 75th minute and Morgan was the last substitute, for Barnes, in added time at the end of the match.
Sadly, there were some disappointing performances. Vardy hardly got a sniff, although it could be argued that he had little service, and I do wonder if his career is coming to an end. Neither Barnes nor Perez offered much threat, although both worked hard. Maddison was credited with his defensive work, but I would rather have seen more of a threat going forward.
My man of the match would be Pereira, but he should have done better after wriggling his way into the box, but putting his shot wide. So, we will take a point and have now got a nice round 50.
Leicester: Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Evans, Söyüncü, Chilwell, Choudhury. Pérez (Albrighton 68), Tielemans (Praet 75), Maddison. Barnes (Morgan 90+4), Vardy, Subs (unused). Justin, Gray, Ward, Iheanacho
Booked: Chilwell (88), Choudhury, Maddison (36). Sent Off: Choudhury (76)
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