Club Brugge 0 – 3 Leicester City: Foxes triumph in Belgium
By Jake Cursley
First Half
A shaky start to the first half for the foxes saw Club Brugge’s striker Izquierdo played in behind Wes Morgan following a string of sloppy Leicester City passes.
Izquierdo was then 1 on 1 with Schmeichel who did fantastically well to make himself big, putting off Brugge’s main man who put the ball wide of the net. A huge opportunity for the home side.
Just minutes later Leicester City receive a throw in parallel to CLub Brugge’s box. We say throw in however with Luis Hernandez they may as well count as corners!
Hernandez launches the ball into the box and the keeper makes a complete hash of things. The ball then falls to Marc Albrighton who manages to get a foot in and slots it away into an open net.
1 – 0 to Leicester City after just 4 minutes! What a way to open your first ever Champions League fixture.
the 17th minute saw some positive leadership from Leicester City’s prolific striker Jamie Vardy.
Dropping deep to the halfway line he picked the ball up, turned and drove at the Belgian champion’s defence. After getting to the edge of the opposition box he tried to weave past his man and attempted to beat him for pace but is stopped in his tracks.
A positive opening 20 minutes from the foxes, the same however cannot be said for the hosts.
According to the telegraph, during the period between the 12th minute and the 22nd minute, Leicester City had just 23% possession! Tony Pulis will be at home taking notes.
The 28th minute saw the most controversial moment of the first half as Brugge misplace a pass. As always Jamie Vardy is the fastest onto the ball, too fast for the Brugge defender Simons, who dives in after Vardy.
Simons completely takes out Jamie Vardy whilst being the last man and should have been sent off however the referee elects to give Simons only a yellow.
I doubt many foxes fans will care however as this was quickly forgotten, the subsequent freekick flew into the top left corner after a fantastic striker from PFA Player of The Year Riyad Mahrez.
Danny Drinkwater has spent the majority of the first half bossing the midfield however when he has driven forward, his long distance strikes have left little to be desired.
He came closest in the 42nd minute as a corner kick was cleared from the Club Brugge half. Drinkwater, running backwards elects to shoot the cleared ball with his left foot.
The volley dipped just over the Club Brugge bar, going out for a corner kick. What a goal it would have been.
Leicester City enter the tunnel at halftime leading the game 2 – 0.
Next: Second Half