Manchester City grabbed a narrow 1-0 victory at King Power Stadium over struggling Leicester City as Pep Guardiola continues the chase for Premier League top spot.
Starting Lineup
Leicester City — Ward; Amartey, Söyüncü, Faes; Castagne, Dewsbury-Hall, Tielemans(C), Justin; Maddison, Vardy, Barnes.
Manchester City — Ederson; Akanji, Stones, Laporte, João Cancelo; Gündogan(C), Rodri; Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Grealish; Álvarez.
Leicester City went into the game as underdogs after losing their last 9 matches against Manchester City.
Their problems were compounded with poor Premier League run that has left them to battle to stay off the relegation zone after 11 games so far.
Manchester City confidentially travelled to the King Power stadium flagging a superior Premier League outing backed with a favorable away record against the Foxes.
The Citizens were second in the Premier League and had won their last three away matches against Leicester City at King Power Stadium.
It was not a good first-half performance by the home side as they game began.
Manchester City dominated proceedings throughout the first-half.
They outclassed their host in every aspects of the game, raking in 67% of the ball possession against tht Foxes’ 33%.
Leicester City managed only two goal attempts, with only 1 on target, while Manchester City fired 10 shots with 4 on target, 4 off target, while 2 was blocked.
The Pep Guadiola-led team completed 350 passes, completing 314 of it, while Leicester City had 184 shots, completing 146.
Leicester City goalkeeper, Ward, was forced into series of saves as the visitor heaps pressure for a goal.
In the 12th minute, De Bruyne had chipped a lovely cross after a cornerkick from the edge of the box into the middle. Rodri glances it on, using the pace on the cross, but Ward is there to tip it over.
Three minutes later, Manchester City had another chance for a goal as they continued mounting pressure.
De Bruyne had located a swath of space. He slides in a nice throughball to Alvarez, who came one-on-one with Ward, but his effort was saved by Ward.
Despite the mounting pressure, Manchester City could not find the back of the net as they settled for a barren first-half draw.
Manchester City equally dominated the second half of the game, with Leicester not making any attempt to counter the dominance of their visitors.
Four minutes into the second half, there was a breakthrough for City as they finally grabbed their first goal in the 49th minute.
It was a wonderful freekick by Kevin De Bruyne. After Grealish had won the freekick, De Bruyne steps up and took the freekick.
He curled it into the top corner, beating Ward’s full stretch to put City on the lead.
Despite going a goal up, the visitors continue to dominate proceedings and push for another goal to secure the lead.
Leicester made some changes in the second half as Brendan Rodgers tried to chisel the game to their favour and cut down Manchester City’s dominance.
Drewsbury-Hall was subbed off for Mendy while Jamie Vardy was brought off for Iheanacho. Soyuncu was also brought off for Daka.
Manchester City made some substitutions as well; Akanji was brought off for Dias.
Leicester City came close to a chance in the 77th minute. Madison sent a pass to Iheanacho from the edge of the box, but he fired wide off the crossbar.
In the 80th minute, Tielemens had sustained an injury after he collided with the De Bruyne. He was patched up and was able to continue his game with less than 10 minutes to play.
Leicester had series of last-minute chances as the game neared its end but were unable to convert them.
The match finally ended with Manchester City grabbing all three points against the Foxes to continue pushing for a Premier League top spot.
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