Four-star show as City tame Tigers in friendly
MADDISON, SOUMARE, PRAET AND IVERSEN ALL IMPRESS IN VICTORY
LEICESTER City swept aside Championship side Hull City 4-0 at the MKM Stadium in their latest preseason friendly, on a night when 21 players were all given run-outs, writes Joseph Chapman.
Patson Daka opened the scoring with a fine goal before the half hour mark, and City had the game sewn up early in the second half to get their hands on the inaugural Corendon Cup, pictured.
Boubakary Soumare powered forwards and fed Harvey Barnes over to his left.
In typical Barnes fashion, the winger opened up his body and tried to curl a shot into the far corner of the goal. Instead, his effort took a nick off defender Tobias Figueiredo and sent Matt Ingram the wrong way. James Maddison then received the ball on the right hand side after neat teamwork and he picked out Wesley Fofana, who nodded in off the post.
Six minutes into the second half and it was 3-0, game over.
Marc Albrighton and Jamie Vardy almost combined to devastating effect when the former produced a sumptuous ball for the latter at the back post, but Vardy couldn’t keep his volley beneath the crossbar.
Then came Maddison’s individual brilliance. Charging forward, he jinked past the attempted tackles before picking out the corner of the net.
Aside from the result, the performance of certain individuals would have pleased Brendan Rodgers, including Dennis Praet, Boubakary Soumare and a confidence-boosting 90 minutes for goalkeeper Daniel Iversen.
Our City correspondent Jordan Blackwell writes: “Rodgers said at the weekend that Maddison was the best he has seen him in his three-anda-half years as manager and that goal was more proof why.
“That’s terrific skill, awareness and composure. As at the weekend, City looked much more of an attacking threat in a back four and with Maddison and Barnes on the pitch.
“But this time, importantly, they looked strong defensively too, their control of possession meaning Daniel Iversen had a quiet second half.
“After Rodgers laid out the reality of the transfer situation at the weekend, that victory and that performance will be very welcome to lift the mood around the club and build excitement for the new campaign.
“In the whole of Rodgers’ tenure, that’s probably the best pre-season display they have produced.”
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