How Leicester scored four goals past Spartak Moscow

The lack of central progression forced the Foxes chance creation into the wings, although this was dependant on the individual battles of both Luke Thomas and Ricardo Pereira. For the majority of the first-half, Spartak won these battles and for a multitude of reasons. The most damning was the lack of runners supporting the two wing-backs, who inside the 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation that Brendan Rodgers opted for, where the most advanced players in width.

However, the first opportunity for Thomas to make a progressive pass towards the left channel was early in the second-half, when Kelechi Iheanacho had gotten goal-side of his marker and was making a diagonal run into the left half-space. This perfectly weighted pass sucked the defender into attempting an interception, before Daka — the man of the evening — made a smart burst into the centre of the box to receive a cutback and finish for his second of the game.

There was a sense of repeatability with the third and fourth goals, Daka making blindside runs on the defenders before activating his acceleration to receive a through ball and score in a one-on-one setting with the goalkeeper. However, the third goals deserves a lot of credit for James Maddison — and perhaps the system that Rodgers decided for the fixture.