Leicester 1-0 Wolves: How it felt to be back at King Power

Leicester City win on the opening day of the 21/22 season in front of home supporters. Here is how it went and how it felt to be back at King Power.

Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester side lined-up almost as expected for the opening day of the season, bar the absence of Ryan Bertrand due to testing positive for Covid-19. Best wishes to Bertrand that he recovers well.

The Foxes started with a back line of Kasper Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Daniel Amartey, Caglar Soyuncu, and Luke Thomas.

The midfield began as Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, and James Maddison. Up front, Harvey Barnes, Jamie Vardy, and Ayoze Perez were responsible for attacking duties.

So, here is how the Wolverhampton Wanderers game went and how it felt to be there in person.

Leicester City’s electric first half

The first half was ecstatic. The boys in blue dominated possession with 64% and five shots on target. All of those shots came from inside the Wolves’ penalty box.

You would have been forgiven for forgetting that this was a competitive match and not just training for the King Power side.

The atmosphere was electric. Chants from ‘Vichai had a dream’ to ‘Jamie Vardy’s having a party’ and shouts of ‘go on then’ rang through the stadium grounds.

The first goal took the chants of ‘come on Leicester’ to a whole new level. Jamie Vardy – the legend – was back and was firing for the Foxes on the opening day.

From where I was – on row B no less – you could see so many happy faces. No, not happy, joyous. Finally, they could be back at the grounds they love, surrounded by like-minded fans.

I could not hear a single Wolverhampton chant throughout that entire first half. Thank goodness I could not, because listening to fans – real fans – again was something brilliant.

A dull second affair

The second half came around and Bruno Lage had clearly spoken to his players about matching the intensity Rodgers had instilled in the side.

They came out swinging. Adama Traore was back to his best, brushing past Amartey too frequently and creating opportunities for Raul Jiminez. Truly, the game and atmosphere had turned on its head.

The chants became more infrequent, the cheers were replaced by jeers at the referee and jest towards the mistakes of the away players. They nearly scored twice, with three shots on target in the second half.

Kasper Schmeichel was more than a match for the attempts and kept us in that game.

Then, substitution time came around. Madders, Barnes, and Perez off; Boubakary Soumare, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Jannik Vestergaard on.

A back three with two strikers and three strong midfielders. A shape which lacks fluidity, penetration, drive, or ambition. A tactic designed purely to see out the game and match the penetration of Wolves with more faces in defence.

As you can imagine, the Foxes created very little. Luke Thomas performed excellently in creating a few chances for Vardy, and both Soumare and Vestergaard created opportunities for ‘Nacho’.

By the end, Leicester supporters were singing, shouting encouraging messages at players, and willing the whistle to blow early. The win starts the season off well. A good debut for Soumare and Vestergaard.