Missed penalty by Vardy leaves City with work to do to get out of group
FOXES MISS CHANCE TO MOVE LEVEL ON POINTS WITH NAPOLI
LEICESTER City’s stumbling Europa League campaign continued as Jamie Vardy missed a penalty in a 1-1 draw with Spartak Moscow at the King Power Stadium last night.
City were handed a golden chance to move level on points with group leaders Napoli but Vardy, just on as a substitute, saw a tame effort saved from 12 yards, and Brendan Rodgers’ side had to settle for a point in an encounter they really could have done with winning.
Even if City beat Legia Warsaw in their next match, they will go to Serie A leaders Napoli in the final group game requiring a result or needing other scores to fall their way.
They should not be in such a scenario, but failed to make their dominance of possession pay last night, with too much risk-free football in front of a deep-lying Spartak defence limiting their chances.
After a first period in which City had controlled but not created, they then fell behind minutes into the second half as Chelsea old boy Victor Moses headed in.
They were not behind for long with Daniel Amartey scoring his first goal of the season from a corner, but in their two best chances for a winner, Vardy was denied from the spot, and Kelechi Iheanacho fired against the post.
With the group so tight, the match felt like a must-win for both clubs.
The 100 or so travelling Spartak fans made that abundantly clear to their players, unfurling a banner that read ‘WIN OR DIE’ before kick-off.
That may have been an attempt to spark an improvement in form in their side: they had been thumped 7-1 by Zenit St Petersburg and drawn with relegationbattling Rostov since the sevengoal thriller with City a fortnight earlier.
Rodgers’ side, meanwhile, had come unstuck against Arsenal and Aaron Ramsdale after a decent spell of form.
However, the manager opted for the three-at-the-back set-up they had played so poorly in against the Gunners, rather than the fourat-the-back shape that sparked an improvement.
That decision may have been prompted by a sickness bug in the camp that ruled out winger Harvey Barnes as well as attacking midfielder James Maddison.
In Maddison’s place came Ayoze Perez, the Spaniard starting for the first time since September, while Patson Daka, Spartak’s tormentor in Moscow, returned up front in place of Jamie Vardy.
On the left flank, Ryan Bertrand’s experience was preferred to the youthful exuberance of Luke Thomas.
Despite the importance of the fixture, the game was not played at any ferocious speed.
Instead, a dominant City played this way and that, searching for the perfect moment to break through a deep-lying Spartak defence, clearly worried about Daka finding space in behind again.
With the visitors so deep, City were able to get a few shots away early on, Daniel Amartey sending one just wide, and Kelechi Iheanacho seeing one held by Aleksandr Selikhov between the sticks.
The best of the efforts came from Boubakary Soumare.
After Iheanacho was stopped in his tracks and the ball cleared to the edge of the area, the Frenchman crisply struck it goalwards only to see his effort cannon off the woodwork.
It would have been his first City goal.
But efforts inside the box were few and far between.
Perez had instinctively headed at goal by blocking a clearance, the ball bouncing wide, while Iheanacho’s neat footwork should have led to a shot on goal, only for Daka to attempt to take over, the Zambian kicking fresh air instead of the ball.
Spartak had tried to counter on occasion, but City had always cut out danger comfortably, with Kasper Schmeichel enjoying a very quiet first half.
But it only takes a moment, as City discovered right at the start of the second period.
City were overloaded on their left-hand side as Bertrand and Caglar Soyuncu were taken out of the game by two passes.
Moses was involved in the move at the start and continued his run into the box, running free of Soumare and Youri Tielemans and between Jonny Evans and Amartey, finding the perfect spot to get on the end of Mikhail Ignatov’s cross and flash a header into the far corner.
Now City were really up against it, and the fans were getting restless.
Rodgers spotted that and prepared a pair of substitutions to
spark a comeback. But before
they could come on, City were level.
Their set-piece record, particularly defensively, has been poor this season, but they worked a corner well to get back into the game.
Bertrand swung it in, Perez peeled off the front post to flick on, and Amartey came crashing in to thump it into the net.
But one goal was not enough for City, and so the substitutions came anyway, Bertrand and Perez withdrawn despite their involvement in the goal.
On came Ademola Lookman and Wilfred Ndidi, the latter for his first appearance since picking up a hamstring injury in September.
Jamie Vardy was not far behind. A rare Europa League appearance for the number nine perhaps showed the increasingly desperate situation City were in.
But he had an immediate chance to put them back on the right track.
Lookman had found it difficult to get past defenders, but did not lose faith, and as he surged into the box to try to meet Ndidi’s pass, Moses put his arm on the winger’s shoulder.
Lookman went down and the referee pointed to the spot, with Vardy taking the ball.
It’s not typical that Vardy has to wait until November for his first penalty of the season, and potentially he was out of practice.
He stepped up and placed it tamely to Selikhov’s left, getting nowhere near the corner, the Spartak goalkeeper saving with his legs.
City had two excellent chances to win it thereafter, both in the space of a couple of seconds.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, with about his first touch of the game, broke into the box to meet a Timothy Castange cross, and his header looked goalbound, only to be inadvertently blocked by Iheanacho.
The Nigerian tried to make amends, hooking the ball goalwards, with his effort bouncing off the post and wide.
City still have it all to do if they are to make it out of a group they were favourites to progress from comfortably.