Leicester City 4 Tottenham Hotspur 1 – 11 February 2023
Report by Tish Krokosz
The team news before the match showed that Tielemans had not been picked and was not even on the bench. The cynic within me wondered whether this was to ensure that he did not repeat the disastrous pass towards the end of the comparative match last season which allowed Spurs to take all three points in extra time. But we were told that he had a calf problem during training and would not be risked.
The opposition had put six goals past us in the away fixture in September and Harry Kane, who “always scores against us,” had just passed the record previously held by Jimmy Greaves as Tottenham’s top goal scorer. The previous week they had beaten the Premier champions. The omens did not look promising.
However, the three January signings were making their first home starts for City and they had looked good in their away win at Villa the previous weekend. Players who had been out due to injury were returning and Spurs had an awkward Champions League match to consider in a few days time. Perhaps there was hope.
In contrast to the Brighton game, this one started at full pelt and both sides were intent on attacking vigorously and defending solidly. This was evidenced by Bentancur and Faes receiving yellow cards within a dozen minutes. City’s free kick went narrowly wide but the effort from Perisic was much closer and Ward had to play safe by tipping it over the bar. The ensuing corner was equally dangerous as Kristiansen managed to clear it with his knee from just under the bar. Unfortunately, their second corner was more effective and the Dane’s attempted clearance bounced off Bentancur and into the net for a lucky goal. VAR took a long time to decide that there was no offside in the build-up and City were once again behind early on in a match.
Until last week, the statistician would have pointed out that City could not win a match this season after going behind. But that had changed at Villa and this team was in a similar positive frame of mind and went forward to find that equaliser. It took less than ten minutes to find it. An in-swinging corner from Maddison was headed away by the Spurs defence and landed on the edge of the penalty area with no players nearby. Mendy, who usually sits back ready to deal with any such clearances or who is ready to stop a break away, was the nearest City player. As he ran towards the ball the crowd wished he would shoot, but, of course, that is not his role; except that this is exactly what he did and the ball screamed into the top right-hand corner for his first City goal and only the second in his career.
Three minutes later City were 2-1 up. A long ball from the Spurs defence towards Kane was cleared by Faes and the ball landed at the feet of Iheanacho. He turned quickly and advanced towards goal. You could forgive him if he had tried to increase his City goal tally by having a shot. Instead, he saw Maddison was unmarked to his left and he unselfishly rolled it to him and the number 10 hammered it past Forster.
After another three minutes, City could have had a third as Iheanacho once more came towards goal from the right and as he took the ball on to his left foot shot it towards the far post. This time Forster was equal to it and made a finger-tip save.
The game continued at a pulsating pace and both sides had opportunities to add to the scoreline. The home crowd were loving the positive play and passion that their players were showing, although there was a nervous moment on the half hour when Ward and Castagne got themselves into a muddle and the latter was close to putting the ball into his own net.
Iheanacho was having a great time against the slow-footed Spurs defence. We were well into extra time at the end of the first half when he picked up the ball from a fine Maddison through ball. He took it along the edge of the penalty area, feinted to go on his right foot, thereby fooling Dier into making a stop in his run. Instead, the City man nudged the ball onto his favoured left foot and squeezed a shot into the far corner of the goal and this time Forster was not able to reach it. A 3-1 lead at half-time was not what home fans would have expected but they were loving it.
The second half was not as frenetic as the first. The Londoners made several forays into the City half but without ever looking as if there would be a danger of scoring. Meanwhile, City continued to probe whenever they could with an Iheanacho header, a Barnes shot and a Maddison attempt keeping the crowd excited. Mendy had experienced a memorable match and was substituted after sixty-eight minutes. Although a couple of his passes were a little wayward, he had contributed with a wonderful goal, some vital tackles and interceptions and had run all over the pitch. He deserved a rest.
His replacement, Ndidi, had hardly found his position in the formation when Barnes had the ball in the net. Iheanacho was once more the provider and his pass to the left winger was marginally late because the “goal” was disallowed for offside after a long check by VAR. This was a shame because Barnes had taken it really well and placed the ball beyond the outstretched left hand of Forster.
Although City had not added to their scoreline, the weaknesses that had been shown up in the Spurs defence prompted a wholesale change in personnel by the visitors. City too took the opportunity to make changes in their attack and Iheanacho and Tetê were replaced by Vardy and Praet. It seems that Rodgers’ plan of game management was to not allow the opponents to reduce the lead that City had earned in the first half.
Yet this did not stop Barnes from being compensated for his earlier denial of a goal. With ten to go, Maddison threaded the ball through the middle to him; he turned, took one look at goal and placed the ball into the same spot where it had landed ten minutes or so earlier.
There was a welcome return for Ricardo when he was asked to replace Maddison with a few minutes of the match remaining. His involvement was minimal but his mere presence showed that City were closer to having a full set of players to choose from. His role was on the right wing where Tetê had been positioned for most of the match. Despite lots of hype about the Brazilian, his contribution to the game was not overwhelming. Of the three January signings, Kristiansen stood out as a good buy for his defensive and attacking work.
When the final whistle went, one had to wonder whether Kane had taken any part in the match. He was marshalled excellently by Faes and I could only remember a couple of half-hearted attempts at goal. In fact, the whole of the Spurs team were not at their best (thank goodness) and they could have returned to London with a worse defeat than was experienced.
City showed that, for the second week running, they could recover from being a goal down to coming away with all three points. There was passion in their play and the only blot was the list of yellow cards that had been dished out by the referee – five in total for City against Tottenham’s two. The pessimistic fan would have looked at February’s game schedule and expected no points. So far, City have six from the two games. Is it asking too much for another six from the next two?
Leicester City: Ward, Castagne, Souttar, Faes, Kristiansen, Mendy (Ndidi 68), Dewsbury-Hall, Maddison (Ricardo 86), Barnes, Tetê (Praet 76), Iheanacho (Vardy 76). Subs not used: Iversen, Söyüncü, Amartey, Thomas, Daka.
Tottenham Hotspur: Forster, Porro (Emerson Royal 75), Tanganga (Sánchez 75), Dier, Davies, Bentancur (Sarr 60), Højbjerg, Kulusevski (Danjuma 78), Son, Perisic (Richarlison 75), Kane Subs. not used: Austin, Skipp, Lucas Moura, Lenglet
Referee: M. Salisbury Attendance: 32,187
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