On a snowy afternoon in Moscow, Leicester City produced a stirring comeback to revive their ailing Europa League campaign in a 7 goal thriller. So what three things did we learn and what might it mean for the season?
Patson Daka’s arrival heralds a new era
Front and centre of this astonishing display was Leicester City’s 23 million pound striker. Having scored his first goal in the thrilling victory over Manchester United at the weekend, the Zambian went four better in Russia. Having already caused trouble earlier in the game, skewing just wide and making runs off the shoulder. He started an astonishing and most obvious man of the match display by scoring right on half time with a sharp right footed finish, ensuring Brendan Rodgers half time talk was easier.
Two minutes after half time Daka slotted home a tap in after good work from Kelechi Iheanacho who also assisted his first goal. Six minutes later Daka completed an astonishing eight-minute hat trick with a cool left footed finish. Then after a barren twenty-five minute spell, he latched onto a Maddison through ball and lashed home a left foot finish for his and Leicester’s fourth. Please click the link to travel to the next page.
Daka will make headlines for this display and give opposition defenders cause for worry. Currently Jamie Vardy is in another bout of amazing form. Kelechi Iheanacho is creating as well as scoring. Now, with Daka scoring five goals in barely a game and a half, Brendan Rodgers has the tough choice about how many of his three dangerous strikers he unleashes on Brentford on Sunday. From only having one dangerous striker, Leicester now have a trio of dangerous options.
Leicester City defensively suspect and unlucky
Hardly anything new to write about regarding the defence but context is always key in these situations. The first goal conceded by Leicester was a fluke: Aleksandr Sobolev’s shot was going nowhere until it deflected cruelly off Soumare and past Schmeichel.
The second goal can be directly attributed to Caglar Soyuncu who once again dwelled on the ball before having it snatched off him. The ball was then crossed into an unmarked Larsson who pulled away from Daniel Amartey who comically fell to the ground. By the time Spartak finished their scoring in the 86th minute, they made the most of some erratic decision making from substitute Jannik Vestergaard for Sobolev’s second.
It’ll go down as another defensive nightmare show but over the game Spartak only amassed four shots on target. Worryingly every time a team hits the target against Leicester it seems a goal is likely. Leicester have now conceded twenty goals in all competitions in 12 games, two less than last season. But with Leicester creating nearly double the amount of chances as their hosts, strap yourselves in for a rollercoaster season of goals at both ends.
The Video Assisted Referee was embarrassing
Leicester haven’t been served well by VAR this season (see Brighton and Hove Albion away). There were two massive decisions that were completely ignored by the officials in Moscow. Danger-man Patson Daka was about to unleash an early shot when his foot blatantly clipped in the box. Fair enough that the referee missed it but unforgivable that officials couldn’t intervene and give a clear penalty to Leicester City.
With the game coming to a close, Marc Albrighton was on the receiving end of a shin high tackle that he was unfortunate not to have his leg broken from substitute Aleksandr Lomovitskiy. The referee saw this and deemed a yellow card sufficient. The replays suggested otherwise and once again watchers looked on, aghast as the video assisted referee was happy with the on-field referee’s original call. Pathetic and unforgivable comes to mind. If Lomovitskiy plays any part in a result at the King Power in two weeks it will compound the annoyance.