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Leicester ranks second in the table after a fourth straight away win in the Premier League. This was Leeds’ heaviest home loss of the season and if they had finished as strong as they started, Leicester might have had an even more painful score, although the home team overcame a terrible start to be with the possibility of a draw in the second. medium.
Eventually, they were undone, as a few more teams surely will this season, because of Jamie Vardy’s unquenchable appetite and opportunism.
Played in pouring rain, the game got off to a remarkable start. Leeds had a great opportunity to open the scoring in less than two minutes when a wonderful liaison game between Pablo Hernández and Hélder Costa led to a free header from Patrick Bamford at the six-yard line.
Unfortunately for the locals, Bamford put his effort straight into the arms of Kasper Schmeichel, and the keeper launched an attack that ended in Illan Meslier’s net.
Schmeichel fed Christian Fuchs down the left for the defender to send a ball straight down the channel, only for Robin Koch to lose his way when Harvey Barnes challenged him.
Koch had a chance to punt but missed it and allowed Barnes to get closer to goal, then a low blow back pass simply invited Vardy to take control, claiming possession first and then throwing the ball into the path of Barnes to cut Koch and the goalie.
Leeds opened up on Leicester’s first attack, and it was clear that Vardy had the pace, touch and balance to cause trouble for home defenders on a slippery surface.
Meslier came to his team’s rescue with a one-handed save when Barnes delivered a well-hit shot, before Leeds fumbled in his own half and was punished with a second goal before the first half’s midpoint.
Youri Tielemans started the play and finished it, but Vardy’s move was key again, losing his markers to reach Marc Albrighton’s center with a hunched header that Meslier could only push in Tielemans way.
Adapting to conditions much better than the home team, keeping things simple but energetic, Leicester punched holes in Leeds’ defense practically every time they advanced.
Leicester could have had more before the break. Luke Thomas saw a save shot and Meslier almost got a cross ball into his own net.
When Leeds had a chance to strike back, they couldn’t take it. Bamford stayed on the side to accept Luke Ayling’s clever ball into the box, but perhaps still concerned about his earlier failure, his first touch was strong enough to allow a Schmeichel alert to suffocate at his feet.
Marcelo Bielsa sent Ian Poveda-Ocampo in place of rookie Jamie Shackleton for the second half, but the fact that Leeds disallowed a goal in three minutes was to change to unusual uncertainty in the visitors’ defense.
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Nothing seemed to work as Leeds played a short corner back and Stuart Dallas hoisted a diagonal cross to the far post, but everyone in the penalty area missed, and when the last defender, Fuchs, failed to clear, Schmeichel suddenly realized that he was not in a position to prevent the ball from sliding into his left arm.
Lucky or not, the goal gave a much-needed boost to the locals’ confidence. Leeds asked Leicester more questions in the first 10 minutes of the second half than it had managed in the 45 minutes preceding it, with Luke Ayling just inches from finishing a play at the six-yard line and Hernandez curving a throw to the line. pole and bar angle.
Suddenly there was a contest where in the first half there had been no trace of one. Mateusz Klich tested Schmeichel from a distance as Leicester took a turn by becoming immobilized in his own half, prompting Brendan Rodgers to introduce James Maddison from the bench in an attempt to reproduce the offensive superiority Leicester had enjoyed in the first. half.
It didn’t work to such impressive effect, however, to Rodgers’ credit, the deciding goal was designed by not one but two of his substitutes. Maddison scooped the ball up into space in the middle of the Leeds half, looked up and threw a perfectly weighted pass to pick up Cengiz Under’s support run down the right.
The Leeds cap came just as the substitute was deciding whether to shoot or pass, but the ball went towards the goal instead of away from it and to nobody’s surprise Vardy was in an ideal position for a tap-in and a seventh goal. of the goal. season. Tielemans scored his second with a penalty awarded by the VAR for a foul by Klich on Maddison.
