MATCH REPORT – City Halt Saints Marching On

FAN MATCH REPORT – By Scott Davies

The Foxes travelled to Southampton following the international break looking to take their superb away record to 8 games unbeaten. This was going to be a showdown of two current hotshots of Pelle and Vardy, with 5 and 7 goals each respectively in the Premier League.

City started well in the first few minutes, with Schlupp creating an early chance with a teasing cross which Kelvin Davis flapped at, but did enough to keep it away from Marc Albrighton. Vardy had a decent chance to give Leicester the lead soon after, but fired well over Davis goal.

Southampton found their feet and started to press City and were rewarded on 21 when City failed to clear a third consecutive corner with Fonte finding the net with a neat header. City looked out of sorts and fell further behind on 37 when van Dijk found the net with the ball having struck the post twice, before he bundled his shot past the stranded Schmeichel, who had denied Mane only moments early with a superb save at full stretch.

Replays showed that van Dijk was at least a yard offside, but the goal stood. For the third time this season, Leicester found themselves 2-0 down and they had an uphill battle to salvage something from this game.

City were poor in the first half and were carrying Schlupp and Okazaki who were both well off the pace. Schlupp gave the ball away too much and failed to close the ball down on several occasions and Okazaki struggled to stay on his feet and looked very lightweight in attack.

City went into the break 2-0 down and Ranieri had clearly seen enough of Schlupp and Okazaki, replacing both at half time with Dyer and Mahrez coming in. As I’ve mentioned before, Ranieri is not afraid to retract his decisions and change the team around, and once again, it was a masterstroke from the Tinkerman.

City hit Southampton hard in the second half and looked a class above very good opposition. They were rewarded for their hard work on 66 when Dyer picked up the ball on the half way line down the right flank and weaved his way superbly past several Southampton players, before delivering a pinpoint cross to Vardy who powered home an unstoppable header to the left of Davis who had no chance.

Southampton sat deep and tried to hold on to their lead, but City kept turning the screw. On 81, Vardy should have made it 2-2 when he and Mahrez cleverly combined to carve out an opportunity which Vardy drove just too high of the target, skimming the crossbar as the ball sailed over.

The boys in blue continued to press Southampton and were level 1 minute into added time. The ball broke kindly to Mahrez who threaded a sublime ball through to Vardy, who still had everything to do. One on one with Davis, Vardy went for pure power and drilled the ball past Davis who again had no chance. The blue army went wild as the comeback kings came from 2 goals down to rescue a decent away point, which is the 7th point the Foxes have salvaged from a losing position this season. It was the least Leicester deserved, but the final score was probably a fair result in terms of possession which stood at 50-50. City had 18 attempts at goal in the second half, compared to Southampton’s 4 which proves it was very much a game of two halves.

Surely we cannot keep coming from behind for the whole season? We need to stop leaking these goals, but I have to admit, I am enjoying every minute of the roller coaster the team take us on week in week out! We’ve scored in every game this season, but we’ve also conceded in every game too.

One player stood out for me today. Yes, Vardy scored two great goals and took his tally to 9, but the plaudits have to go to Christian Fuchs. He looked an absolute class above and didn’t put a foot wrong.

Man of the Match – Christian Fuchs… Do YOU agree ? VOTE HERE for YOUR Man of the match

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