James Maddison missed the game, not being ready after that ankle knock v. Spurs, but this ment that Dennis Praet would get his debut from start in front of a packed King Power Stadium. A wet and rainy day, but it all became “sunny” for those supporting the blue of Leicester.
As expected Leicester City would come straight out of the blocks and take command, so they did and Ayoze Perez could have scored just a few minutes into the game, but his finish from a nice Harvey Barnes pass was not just good enough.
Leicester City continued to put pressure on Newcastle, who is a weaker team and really didn’t look comfortable as the Belgian duo Praet and Tielemans looked like a perfect fit in the middle in front of Wilfred Ndidi. The really fitted well in.
Then after 16 minutes a fantastic run from Ricardo Pereira, taking the ball on his own half, just pushing forward with pace that no one could follow, curling the ball on the floor perfectly down in the left corner and Leicester City were 1-0 up. Just a phenomenal solo from the Portuguese, what a strike.
Leicester City continued to put pressure on Newcastle and going into the final minutes of that first half Newcastle midfielder Isac Hayden made too much out of his tackle on Dennis Praet and was given a straight red, no doubts about that one. Thankfully Praet could continue and play on.
Coming out in the second half with one man more, made this an impossible task for the Magpies, but great credit to their fans who just kept on going supporting their team, they deserve so much more, what an example to follow from most fans around in football.
The fans of Newcastle United knew it would be difficult and Leicester City just ran their team of the field. The way Ricardo Pereira and Ben Chilwell just kept coming forward shows what this team is all about.
With a defender like Caglar Soyuncu with so much pace and tackling ability one against one, you can just let your full back go high and support the other players offensively and we all got to see that when Ben Chilwell and Harvey Barnes gave Jamie Vardy a great chance to score, and the talisman of Leicester City just placed it perfectly down at the nearest post, Leicester City were 2-0 up after 54 minutes.
Brendan Rodgers did not want anyone to just be satisfied with a win, but to go for as many goals as possible, and Leicester City just kept pushing on. Dennis Praet combined perfectly out to the right, with his pass being deflected by Newcastle defender Paul Dummett and the third goal was a fact after 57 minutes.
Brendan Rodgers made a change early on in the 2nd half replacing Marc Albrighton with Harvey Barnes and what a perfect change. Feel a bit sorry for Marc as he is such a gifted player and what a perfect pass he made to Jamie Vardy on his 2nd for the day and the 4th one was a fact, this time with a perfect header.
To see such a performance from a team not really the finished article yet, with a group of very young players just terrorizing opponents with offensive play close to “tiki-taka” and without one of their absolute best players, it was just fantastic to see defensive midfielder coming up in to the penalty box and finish it all of with a “Harry Kane” in the 90th minute, putting straight Leicester City’s biggest ever win in the Premier League.
Brendan Rodgers managed to compose the team in the perfect way getting a great response from Dennis Praet who had a great game, and really contributed well in this fantastic win, showing this team is going places, and next Saturday hopefully a “surprise” will be in place at Anfield, as the Leicester City manager is back at his former club for the first time since getting the sack in October 2015.
Leicester City are two points in front of what they had in that 2015/16 season at the same time, they are 3rd and hopefully they will continue to show hunger and self confidence will be boosted both after watching Liverpool’s “lucky” win at Bramall Lane and also of course after a great result this evening.
- Positives:
- Ability to score five goals, and just push on with one man more
- Jamie Vardy scoring two, fantastic goals
- Pereira of course, what a goal
- Dennis Praet just showing us all that he is a quality act
- Caglar’s defensive and no fuzzing style, what a defender he can become
- The way Leicester play at the moment is just very impressive
- Negatives:
- Not much, maybe the weather
- Maybe, too see the two former foxes, Stephen Clemence and Steve Agnew in the dug out with Steve Bruce, both being back at King Power getting hammered
- Player Ratings: Schmeichel 7. Pereira 8, Chilwell 7, Evans 7, Soyuncu 8, Nididi 8, Praet 8, Tielemans 7, Barnes 7, Vardy 9, Perez 7, Subs: Albrighton, Choudhury, Gray
Match Stats: H/A
- Possession: 69 / 31
- Corners: 9 / 0
- Shots on target: 3 / 0
- Fouls: 11 / 9
- Offsides: 0 / 1
TCF - FILBERT WAY 
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