A 𝔹𝕀𝔾 #lcfc win over Forest 🦊
— Leicester City (@LCFC) October 3, 2022
Delivered by @ParimatchUK#LEINFO pic.twitter.com/icnwMyB1d5
Leicester City beat Nottingham to win the mini derby. Brendan Rodgers men register their first EPL win in 2022-2023 campaign on monday night at king power stadium.
The foxes opened the scoring through James Maddison as his shot got a ricochet off the hands of Nottingham’s defender Lewis Cook directing it past the goalkeeper into the net. Jammie Vardy received the ball at the far wing of the pitch and unmarked squaring in for Maddison who was well placed outside the eighteen yard box before powerfully striking it. The foxes had started the game with intent and maintained the tempo as the looked up for their first win of the season.
Nottingham had the first real opportunity of the game through their striker Taiwo Awoniyi but the former Liverpool player could not direct his low shot into the net as the ball went past Leicester goalkeeper Danny Ward but ended up hitting the outpost. A couple of minutes later the foxes had the lead.
Brendan Rodgers men then doubled their lead two minutes later through Harvey Barnes whose efforts curled into the net past the goalkeeper. Maddison would later pile more misery to relegation threatened Nottingham forest by delivering a sumptuous free kick leaving Dean Henderson flat footed.
Both teams headed to the dressing room at half time with Steve Cooper’s men trailing 3-0. The forest Reds started the final half with intent but yet again Awoniyi couldn’t score in the 52nd minute after being played a long pass by Mckenna which found him one vee one with Leicester keeper Danny Ward.
He tried lobbying the ball over the goalkeeper who was wondering in no man’s land but his efforts were parred away and the ball fell to his team mate Johnson who failed to control the ball before finishing into an empty net.
Leicester’s final goal
Patson Daka caped Leicester’s win by adding a fourth goal after coming off the bench. The 23 year old Zambian received a sweep cross from Maddison and flicked it to the near post past the legs of Henderson in the 72nd minute. The win saw Leicester leapfrog Nottingham in the table with hopes that they rapidly replicate the performance in coming games and rise up again.
It was a long waited win for the foxes and Rodgers admitted if the same in his post match interview.
“It’s been too long, to be honest. We were excellent tonight – the intensity, the pressing. It’s a great night for the players and the supporters. I said before the match that it could be a season-changing game. We’ve played well with the ball this season, but against the ball in key moments we haven’t defended well. Tonight, we did that and we got our first clean sheet, which is important,” said Rodgers.
On the contrary, Forest Reds woes continue as the manager blamed the loss and poor performance on lack of blend among team members as they had just overhauled the previous team and brought in new players over the summer. “I said after the Fulham game that we look very vulnerable off conceding a goal. And we’ve done it again.
If you actually look at the second goal, it’s come from not winning a competitive moment quite high up the pitch. If you don’t do that and you give teams like Leicester, a technical team, space, then they will progress up the pitch – and they have good players to make a difference.
That was particularly annoying, if I’m being honest, in the game, where we did that again. It’s not something we’ve ignored, because of what has happened in previous games,” Cooper said.
“I’m not soft with the players, that’s the last thing I am, but I refuse to be really critical of them as a group, because we’re all in this really tough challenge together. Tactically, first half, we were not what we planned to be. That had a big impact on the rhythm of the game and the momentum Leicester had. That was frustrating. Also, I didn’t like us in the duels in the first half.
There wasn’t enough competitive moments, duels, one-v-ones, fight-balls, second-balls, whatever you want to call it, where I felt we were coming out on top. It was the opposite. Because of those two things, we ended up giving too much space for Leicester to play as they wanted to play and, in the end, getting around our box. When you do that at this level, you run the risk of creating chances and conceding goals, and that’s what happened.“But we should score before they score. If someone had said we would have a chance to go 1-0 up, then I would have bitten whoever’s hand off.”
“We are not taking those moments in games and scoring when we should. But also, we are having phases in games where we are letting the result run away from us – and we’ve done it again, with two goals in a couple of minutes and then a third.Although we made changes and did better in the second half, the game was too far away from us. It’s frustrating.” He concluded.
Nottingham will be hoping to get their first win of the season as they welcome Aston Villa next Monday while Leicester travel to Vitality stadium to face Bournemouth on Sunday.
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