Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WINNING HAND
Poker-loving Foxes star shows again he can be the ace in Southgate’s pack of Lions and enjoys his goal with the best celebration this season by some (social) distance
SHAKE on it... poker-loving James Maddison showed Gareth Southgate he’s a player with a very good hand.
Maddison proved again that he doesn’t need a full house when the man he really wants to impress is in one of the seats.
Southgate braved the chill to sit in the stands and even he must have been chuckling behind his mask as the silky midfielder enjoyed a classy goal celebration with ‘pretend’ handshakes to his socially-distanced team mates. It was a goal worth celebrating – an absolute beauty – and one which must surely convince Southgate it’s time to bring Leicester star Maddison in from the cold.
The 24-year-old has been limited to just one sub’s appearance for the Three Lions and at times hasn’t done himself any favours.
He was pictured in a casino on the night he’d pulled out of the international squad because he was too unwell with a virus to play.
Maddison went public with his disappointment at being omitted from Southgate’s squad for the Nations League games against Belgium and Iceland in November. He’s convinced he’s good enough and, if he can just get Southgate’s full backing, he should be laughing.
Maddison certainly brought a smile to proceedings with his celebration after opening the scoring with a stunning 38th-minute goal against resolute Saints.
He latched onto a Youri Tielemans ball and smashed it home from a seemingly impossible angle to get Leicester in front.
And they stayed there, adding a stoppage-time goal from Harvey Barnes to stay right in the title mix. Maddison said:
“Footballers get a lot of stick and it’s nice to put a lighter note on it. I don’t think you will find one person in the country who wants football to stop.
“I hope Gareth Southgate had his mask on! It’s nice to have him here. I want more international football, I’ve had a taste.
“If little things like that are what we need to keep football going, then so be it. We have been told to stop gatherings of people and I tried to make it light-hearted.”
It was a bit tough on injuryravaged Saints because they battled and forced Foxes keeper
Kasper Schmeichel to make a string of fine saves.
Boss Ralph Hasenhuttl couldn’t have been more proud of the way his makeshift side had gone about their job.
He said: “I’m proud of my team. They gave everything. It was the maximum we could have given.”
Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers gets ready for tomorrow night’s clash with Chelsea desperate for his side not to slip away on the final run-in like last time.
City still finished fifth last term but surrendered a Champions League spot on the final day.
Rodgers said: “We’re certainly not going to win every game between now and the end of the season, but we’re going to do our best.
“We’re a better team now and dropped off last season because we were missing our best players. It was as simple as that.
“We still finished in a very good position, but I think we will learn from that.”