All level in the 1st Leg! Report by Simon Mack

Leicester City 1 Aston Villa 1

Carabao Cup Semi Final 1^st Leg

8^th January 2020 8pm

King Power Stadium

Kelechi Iheanacho stepped off the bench to work his magic and earn Leicester City a point as the foxes played their first home fixture in the Carabao Cup this season.

Brendan Rodgers selected yet another shape to his side for this semi-final as a 3 man central defence (Soyunchu, Evans, Fuchs) took to the field. With wing backs in Ricardo and Chilwell and a midfield of Tielemans, Praet and Maddison the side was finished off with the selection of forwards in Perez and Vardy. Early on city got a foothold in the game but never really looked like building up a sustained period of pressure to take the lead and Villa manager Dean Smith looked to have learned from the all guns blazing 4-1 league defeat the foxes had inflicted on his men with a more measured approach. What the visitors did well in defensive numbers they did equally effectively on the break during the first period and just before the half hour a run and cross by Dutch wide man Anwar El Ghazi to the left of the city box found French defender Frédéric Guilbert who had got on the wrong side of Ben Chilwell at the back post and his resulting strike into the ground found the back of the net and sent the visitors in with the lead at the break.

During the first half the unusual choice by Brendan Rodgers not to play a defensive midfielder (Wilfred Ndidi had an operation post training ground injury and was not available) was corrected as Hamza Choudhury came on for Dennis Praet. The lack of a ‘bridge’ and ‘insurance’ between the 3 man defence and the foxes midfield had afforded villa important space on the break during the first half of the game and to Choudhury’s credit he immediately filled that void and more, and became crucial to city’s hugely improved second half performance.

From the first blow of referee Chris Kavanagh’s whistle the second half was almost exclusively played in the Aston Villa half. City pinned in their opponents and worked the ball tirelessly around them but to Villa’s credit they got numbers back and packed the final 3^rd tight, and as the foxes stroked the ball from man to man in an attempt to find a chink in the villains armour the visitor’s defences seemed to be water tight from the numerous Leicester advances.

Up step super sub the ‘magic man’ himself Kelechi Iheanacho! Onto the pitch in replacement of Perez the Nigerian striker seemed to be so focussed on the task ahead as coach Mike Stowell gave him some last minute tactical instructions the city striker was in a zone that only had one thing in mind, and when Choudhury’s superb positioning and awareness won him the ball he fed Jamie Vardy who in turn slotted his attacking counterpart in with a lovely box bound ball that the Nigerian ran onto ghosting past 2 desperate lunges from the villa defence and rifled the ball home past a helpless Ørjan Nyland in the villa goal to put the foxes back on level terms with around 5 minutes of the game left. In came Marc Albrighton for Tielemans with around 10 minutes to go and a high tempo break from city saw a bandaged Ricardo feed the sort of rolling supply to Jamie Vardy that he adores, but despite getting the right side of his defensive suitor the foxes marksman could only graze the wrong side of the post with his powerful low strike.

Full time and scores level and we’ll have to wait 3 weeks for the 2^nd episode of this tight semi-final showdown. On the night villa stole the plaudits for getting the tactics right and manager Smith will have been very happy with his sides draw to take back to Villa Park as a foundation to build upon. For Leicester the system deployed in tonight’s had worked before in recent league outings but for me the missing ingredient until half time was that all important anchor man that city’s sides of late have been almost built around. The training ground injury to Wilfred Ndidi (now out for a few weeks having had an op) must have come as a late change to Rodger’s plans but it was clear from Choudhury’s superb 2^nd half display that the void left by either Hamza or Wilfred not playing had been part of the 1^st half issue and it was to Rodger’s credit that he identified that and rectified the situation at half time. On the night James Maddison got into some good positions and had 2 decent efforts on goal palmed away from villain’s keeper Nyland and Jonny Evans was ragged around and held at a corner mid-way through the second half that left me puzzled as to why VAR didn’t pay more attention to the on field referee’s complete ignorance of the situation. In his first game in four Jamie Vardy had a couple of opportunities that didn’t quite go his way and love him or loath him villa captain Jack Grealish was ever industrious and often the catalyst of the visitor’s break away raids on the city final third.

MOTM? The TV gave it to Mings of the villa defence and he’d been key to keeping the foxes out for large swathes of the 2^nd half. Many of the hacks gave it to Grealish which for me was lazy journalism and in truth the Southgate watched battle of ‘Madders and Jack’ was more hype than substance on the night. In my opinion Hamza Choudhury’s superb second half display was absolutely deserving of the man of the match award. During the second period of this match he seemed to be everywhere for the foxes and played some lovely passes whilst taking on his defensive duties with relish. If Wilfred is now due for a period of recuperation on the side-lines this performance from Hamza warrants a starting berth chance to fill the Nigerian disruptor’s spot in his absence.

Whilst it’s disappointing not to have obtained a lead going into the 2^nd leg at Villa Park we proved in the 4-1 away raid against the villains that we can pick this team apart if they go toe to toe with us. Whether Smith will be cagier at home this time around we’ll have to wait and see, but with the game poised nicely at 1-1 his charges won’t be able to sit back and welcome Leicester on. They may have restricted the foxes to just one goal in reply 2^nd half tonight but with a few more of city’s stars on their ‘A’ game next time out that tactic could well prove fatal.