We all knew what the deal was before this last game of the season, a must win, and Tottenham Hotspur is not the easiest of opponents. Great to see all the fans back at King Power, and they had a good time for most of the game, but as we all know it ended in disaster. A new shirt on show, with flames in blue, not the best I have seen, but again we will have another at the same time next year.
Embed from Getty ImagesFirst half started with the ball floating around mostly in the middle of the park with Tottenham taking an early advantage, but slowly Leicester came more and more into the game. And after 18 minutes Leicester and Jamie Vardy got rewarded with a clear penalty, first ignored by the referee, but with VAR it was a different story. Vardy converted easily from the penalty spot.
But then maybe the worst that could happen was the Wesley Fofana had to leave the field with an injury, and the choice Brendan Rodgers made, was taken out of thin air, not to understand, moving Wilfred Ndidi back in defence and destroying the balance in midfield. Why Papy Mendy suddenly was the answer is a riddle to understand, not being on the field for many games this year.
It all ended first half giving Tottenham the chance to score, and of course as always Harry Kane was the difference scoring the goal and then it was 1-1. Irritating to not be able to hold on to a wonderful lead and no offense to Papy Mendy, but he is not playing the same game as Wilfred Ndidi and his tackling is not at a level that would see him as a natural replacement. Ndidi was still on the field but pushed down in defense.
Embed from Getty ImagesLeicester came out second half with power and managed to keep momentum as much as it was possible and they were lucky when Jamie Vardy again was pulled down inside the penalty box, a new chance to score from penalty spot was used the best way possible, great convertion gain.
As we could see other results also going in Leicester’s favour with Aston Villa taking the lead at home to Chelsea and suddenly being 2-1 up a new chance Champions League looked obvious.
Waiting on Brendan Rodgers to plug the midfield and defensive door on Spurs and put on a replacement for Kelechi Iheanacho who had his worst day in football this season, but instead Rodgers did nothing, kept Kelechi on the field and just let his 4-4-2 or what it was, live and running.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile waiting on a move that would have pushed Maddison up behind Jamie Vardy and giving Praet or Choudhury a chance to work hard in midfield, Pereira was pushed on and Maddison taken off, not to understand when you lead 2-1, would rather see a central midfield player with a tighter midfield to try to secure a win when you have less than a quarter left of the game, but again not the worst of decision to bring on Ricardo, could have moved in to the centre though, but not to understand than you still play with two up front, strange.
Then the massive disaster happened with a terrible mistake by Kasper Schmeichel boxing the ball into his own net from a Tottenham corner, going out in a battle with Sanchez. 2-2 and again a massive blow, because of bad point marking on set pieces, for God sake why are no one doing a better job when play for Champions League places?
Towards the end Brendan Rodgers made his changes bringing on Ayoze Perez as his last trick, but it didn’t work well as Spurs introduced Gareth Bale, who was in a killer mood and destroyed Leicester with two late goals.
Embed from Getty ImagesTo notice, Wes Morgan had his minutes out after the game and got a chance to wave goodbye to fans, sad moment really, but also to understand at the age of 37, goodbye Wes, it’s been a joy to watch how Leicester have evolved under that time you captained this club, a great player, a special captain and getting his hands on the FA Cup as well as the Premier League trophy might not have been in his wildest dreams when joining Leicester City for a fee of £1million from Nottingham Forest almost a decade ago.
- Positives
- Jamie Vardy, scoring two and being lively
- Luke Thomas and Caglar Soyuncu, playing a great game
- Fans back on the terraces
- Negatives:
- Brendan Rodgers doing strange changes and tactical moves
- Kasper Schmeichel again in a vital period making fatal mistakes
- Many players not really showing the grit to go for the CL places
- Player Ratings: Schmeichel 5, Castagne 6, Soyuncu 7, Fofana 7, Albrighton 6, Tielemans 5, Ndidi 6, Maddison 4, Vardy 8, Thomas 6, Iheanacho 3 Subs: Mendy 5, Pereira, Perez
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Jamie Vardy
Match Stats (H/A):
- Possession: 47 / 53
- Corners: 8 / 7
- Shots on target: 6 / 4
- Fouls: 9 / 8
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