The world’s
KING JAMES KEEPS HIS DISTANCE
END GAME: Barnes slots in the second to kill off Saints
JAMES MADDISON was on his best behaviour as he sent Gareth Southgate a classy reminder of his talent.
The Foxes frontman found the key to unlock one of the meanest defences in the Premier League in front of the watching England boss.
Maddison thumped home in the first half from an acute angle as these two top-flight upstarts – harbouring hopes they can gatecrash the end-of-season Champions League party – went at it full throttle.
And he proved after scoring that he had been listening to the words that have rained down on footballers about their need to socially distance during their celebrations.
He found the net, ushered away his team-mates and then pretended to shake hands with all of them.
It was certainly novel and would have impressed the Three Lions head coach who saw the Southampton rearguard breached for the first time in 382 minutes. This battle featured two sides right at the top of their game. Pretty much all their star performers were on the pitch – bar Covid victim Danny Ings – and with a place in the upper reaches of the top flight at stake neither planned to take a step backwards.
This wasn’t heavyweights Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury going at it but more like middleweights Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns from yesteryear.
In the blue corner, the Foxes boasted Jamie Vardy, Maddison and Harvey Barnes. In the red and white, Theo Walcott and Che Adams.
With both sides oozing dynamism and prepared to throw bodies forward, the only surprise was that it took until the 38th minute for the deadlock to be broken. Before Maddison’s strike both keepers had come under pressure and Saints created the cleaner openings.
Kasper Schmeichel, on his 400th Foxes appearance, was the busier of the two and by the break had produced two stops that highlighted his importance to boss Brendan Rodgers.
Ings’ absence gave Ralph Hasenhuttl the opportunity to use Walcott closer to striker Adams who raced clear down the right early on.
He had a clear 10 yards on Jonny Evans but he used all his experience to put his opponent under pressure as he bore down on Leicester’s keeper and
Adams fluffed his lines. At the other end, Alex McCarthy blocked from Barnes after Marc Albrighton and Vardy combined before Walcott fed Adams whose fierce shot was this time beaten away by Great Dane Schmeichel.
It was breathless stuff, the play flowing from end to end, fiercely contested in midfield and with both teams making the pitch as large as possible to play in.
Something had to give. And seven minutes before the interval, it did.
Youri Tielemans was given too much time by the Saints midfield and slipped a pass to Maddison who managed to keep control of the ball and hold off Jack Stephens.
The £24million signing from Norwich kept his cool, lashing between McCarthy and the upright before getting into everyone’s good books with his reaction after claiming his seventh goal of an increasingly impressive campaign ahead of the Euros.
It was impossible to maintain the pace in the second period as Hasenhuttl’s side gambled but it was Leicester who should have extended their lead as the game entered its final quarter.
Barnes’ left-wing cross gave Vardy a clear sight of goal with a header just eight yards out but the usually prolific marksman got under the ball and sent it over the crossbar.
But Southampton remained a threat and came within a whisker of equalising moments later when Stuart Armstrong let fly from 25 yards. For once, Schmeichel was beaten but the crossbar came to his, and Leicester’s, rescue.
The value of that close shave was seen in the dying seconds when, with almost the last kick of the game, Barnes raced onto a Tielemans pass and finished with ease as the Foxes climbed into second place behind Manchester United in the table.
Schmeichel 8; Castagne 7, Fofana 7(Soyuncu (53rd) 6), Evans 7, Justin 7; Tielemans 7, Ndidi 7; Albrighton 6, Barnes 7; Maddison 8 (Perez 77th), Vardy 7 (Iheanacho 90th) McCarthy 7; Walker-Peters 7, Stephens 6, Bednarek 7; Bertrand 7; Armstrong 6, Diallo 7 (Valery 87th), Ward-Prowse 7, Smallbone 7(N’Lundulu (61st) 6); Adams 7(Long (72nd) 6), Walcott 7 Kasper Schmeichel
S Attwell