MAD RESULT
James leads toiling Foxes as Vardy news is all good
BRENDAN RODGERS promised JamieVardy will not be missing for long after an afternoon when his understudies seemed to be missing from all angles.
Leicester made heavy weather of seeing off their Championship rivals despite a second half of relentless James Maddison-inspired football.
Cengiz Under, a soft penalty award to Youri Tielemans and Maddison himself eventually saw them safely home.
But in a side with eight changes, the main one seemed to be the lack of somebody at the top of the team to finish things off.
“Jamie had the operation yesterday,” said Rodgers. “And the likelihood is that it will be a week to 10 days maximum before he is back on the pitch and then a few days more before he is available again.
“He will not lose much fitness as it is a minor injury but, if we can cope without him at this point, he will soon be fit and raring to go.”
Aside from a bright start in which Ayoze Perez and Under took the first turns to fire wide with golden chances, it was a relatively uninspired opening period from the Foxes.
They went behind after a seventh-minute corner was untidily knocked forward by Marcus Forss’ knee after he missed his header, Nampalys Mendy failed to get it clear and Mads Sorensen poked it past goalkeeper Danny Ward with his outstretched toe.
But fewer than 50 seconds were on the clock in the second period when Caglar Soyuncu pounced on Tariqe Fosu, squirting the loose ball through to Maddison. The England international held off a challenge and pushed the ball through to Under, who swept it into the far corner.
Just minutes later,Tielemans was brushed at most by Fosu and collapsed to the floor. Michael Oliver pointed to the spot and, with no VAR in play, the Belgium international got up to tuck the penalty into the corner.
The game was only secured when a Harvey Barnes shot on target in the 71st minute was saved by Luke Daniels only for Maddison to pounce on the rebound.
Brentford boss Thomas Frank said: “It’s a soft penalty and I’m sure VAR wouldn’t give that, but maybe it’s the cleverness of a Premier League player. But what a player James Maddison is.”
BRENTFORD (4-2-3-1): Daniels 6; Rasmusson 5, Pinnock 6, Sorensen 7, Stevens 5; Janelt 6 (Jensen 64, 6), Ghoddos (Gilbery 79) 7; Canos 6 (Pressley 64, 5), Zamburek 6 (Haygarth 84), Fosu 6; Forss 6.
Goal: Sorensen 6.
LEICESTER Ward 6; Pereira 7 (Castagne 70), Amartey 6, Soyuncu 7, Thomas 6; Mendy 5 (Ndidi 70), Tielemans 6; Under 6 (Iheanacho 76), Maddison 8, Barnes 6; Perez 6 (Albrighton 81). Goals: Under 46, Tielemans 51 pen, Maddison 71.