Southampton 1-4 Leicester City: Match recap
Where to start? Southampton were absolutely dominated in every department of a football match by Leicester City on Wednesday night as the Foxes ended victorious by a 4-1 scoreline in their favour.
What adds extra salt the wound of Saints fans is that Leicester are currently being managed by ex-Saints boss Claude Puel who was sacked in the summer by the club and is now getting Leicester to play incredibly well. Where Leicester were brilliant, Southampton were incredibly poor.
The hosts did get off to a decent start, however, with two good chances coming from corners early on in the game but a fantastic goal from Riyad Mahrez dampened any Southampton hopes of getting another early goal.
The Algerian was given way too much space as defenders didn’t close the winger down and so a goal, similar to that of Raheem Sterling’s a few weeks ago, was the result of poor defending.
Just after the half hour mark a corner from Charlie Austin’s saved effort led to a fast Leicester break which saw Shinji Okazaki denied from very close range by Forster who put the ball out for a corner which resulted in a goal by the Japanese striker from a very similar position to his missed opportunity 30 seconds prior.
Despite Saints earning more corners, nothing good came from them and the visitor’s goal fueled them with new-found belief to push on for another with Okazaki, Vardy and Ndidi seeing shots saved by Fraser Forster.
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The goal really did lower the heads of Saints players and their confidence was absolutely shot when Andy King scored Leicester’s third, following a set piece. One of the poorest halves of football from Southampton at St. Mary’s seen for a long time was finally ended and the game restarted with Manolo Gabbiadini coming on for Oriol Romeu.
This change did help partially as Southampton did look much more improved; unfortunately, Leicester were still just as good!
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After some missed opportunities, Saints finally reduced the deficit on the hour mark as Maya Yoshida got the final touch following a corner. Dusan Tadic tried to claim the goal but it’s rightful owner was the Japanese defender’s.
It should’ve been 3-2 moments later as Leicester keeper denied in-form Saints striker Charlie Austin from very close range which didn’t help the situation as soon later the visitors restored their three goal advantage with Okazaki getting his second of the night after Jamie Vardy’s cross reached the lone striker.
Not a lot happened after the score became 4-1 as Leicester were comfortable and Southampton didn’t have the quality to push for another, especially with the risk of being damaged by a rapid counterattack.
Next: Saints 1-1 Arsenal: Three key players
Overall a very poor performance, albeit against an in-form team who played extremely well. As for Saints though, not enough players seem to care which is really disappointing to see, especially after the players found some decent form and play over the last few weeks.
Chelsea will be incredibly tough but it hopefully this was a blip and Saints can put in a performance at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.