SPOT OF BOTHER
Vardy and Mahrez lose their nerve to send City through
JAMIE VArdy and riyad Mahrez both missed in the shootout as Manchester City beat Leicester on penalties last night. Leicester manager Claude Puel seemed to be giving up on a place in the semi-finals when he fielded a team missing seven regular players. But referee Bobby Madley came to his rescue five minutes in to added time by awarding them a highly dubious penalty.
With City leading thanks to a first-half goal by Bernardo Silva, Pep Guardiola’s team seemed to have done enough to reach the last four.
But when Leicester substitute demarai Gray fell under a challenge from Kyle Walker in the 95th minute, Madley pointed to the spot and allowed Jamie Vardy to score and take the game into extra time.
City then prevailed 4-3 in the penalty shoot-out — run on the ‘ABBA’ format — as Vardy and Mahrez both missed.
The decision against Walker following his challenge on Gray had seemed harsh at the time and replays showed that Walker touched the ball and that Gray may also have dived.
Leicester made a game of it in the second half and were certainly much better once Vardy, Gray and Mahrez came on. But that does not strengthen Puel’s argument, it weakens it.
A narrow, respectable defeat is one thing. But one wonders what could have happened had these players been used from the start.
The goal that gave City the lead just after the mid-point of the first half told us much about the way this game had gone. City were more eager and more switched on as they broke from one end of the field to the other to score in the 26th minute.
It was Ilkay Gundogan who led the charge after dispossessing former City striker Kelechi Iheanacho inside his own half. As Gundogan sped away, the Leicester player didn’t seem inclined to chase him and, as home defenders backed off, Puel’s team were in trouble.
Gundogan ran true and straight at the Leicester defence and as he drew players, he was able to slip a neat ball in to the path of Silva on his right.
With only the goalkeeper to beat, Silva’s first touch was not the best but Ben Hamer’s attempts to block were strange and as he sprawled with his legs open the City player was able to slide the ball beneath him and into the goal.
It was a superb counter-attacking goal by City.
Silva could have scored either side of the 13th minute. First, he lifted the ball impishly over Christian Fuchs on the right and brought a diving save from Hamer with his right foot. Then, when Hamer advanced foolishly from his goal in pursuit of a ball he was never going to get, Silva’s shot was cleared off the line by Harry Maguire.
At least the City goal served to wake Leicester up a little. We had seen virtually nothing of them in the first 25 minutes but they did manage to raise themselves once they were behind and could have equalised with a little fortune.
City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo dived smartly to keep out a low shot from Iheanacho after a link-up with Shinji Okazaki.
Puel introduced Vardy in the 57th minute as he and Mahrez were thrown on to try and energise their team. One flick on of a throw-in had to be cleared by City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko almost on his own line and then Maguire headed over from the edge of the area after another wide delivery.
Bravo looked increasingly uncertain and, as the Leicester crowd grew animated, it seemed Puel had made his two substitutions at the right time.
That late spot-kick seemed to give Leicester the momentum but it was City who held their nerve to win the shoot-out.
City scorer Silva said: ‘It was a difficult game for us. We were controlling the game until the late penalty.
‘Leicester have a very good team. Fortunately, Claudio Bravo gave us the win again in the end.
‘I hope we can keep winning, because this team deserve to because of the way we play. We’ll try to celebrate something at the end of this season.’