Barnes and Under on fire as Leicester City beat AEK Athens and qualify for the Round of 32 as winners of Group G

It was simply a brilliant performance from the Foxes as they cruised to a 2-0 victory against AEK Athens. Harvey Barnes and Cengiz Under were on target for the winners of Group G.

The 4-3-2-1 formation played by Brendan Rodgers against the Greek side yesterday evening worked an absolute treat as the Foxes were calm in defence with a flat back four of James Justin, Wesley Fofana, Jonny Evans and Luke Thomas.

Five in midfield for Leicester saw Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi deployed as more defensive midfielders, Dennis Praet looked to play the number 10 role and Barnes and Under were deployed on each wing with Kelechi Iheanacho the sole striker.

Tielemans controlled the midfield as he was commanded the line as he barked orders to his teammates in a very important evening for the East Midlands team.

It was Barnes and Under that were in the spotlight. The speedy and skilful duo breezed past opponents and it was clear to see how much quality they possessed with the runs down each flank and finding the goal.

The Turkish international made it 1-0 to the Foxes on the evening. Tielemans whipped in a delightful ball into the box in search of a player in blue. The ball was scuffed off of Stratos Svarnas as the defender attempted to clear the ball away from the danger zone. Under was there to pounce on the chance and slammed the ball into the back of the net with a vicious volley.

Two minutes later, Barnes doubled the lead for Leicester with a brilliant run. He picked the ball up on the left flank and drove into the AEK Athens penalty area. He looked to curl his shot into the far corner, but the ball deflected off Ionuț Nedelcearu’s back and beat Panagiotis Tsintotas at the near post.

Both wingers were key in that victory as the AEK Athens team discovered straight away as they looked to double up on Under and Barnes and sometimes even triple up as they aimed to keep the pair quiet.

The task looked impossible as the sheer speed and skill between the pair drove Leicester up the field. Under was out there to prove a point as his game time has been limited to just the Europa League and has only been given 146 minutes in the Premier League this season.

Under is on loan at Leicester from AS Roma. The Turkish international is still only 23-years-old and has plenty of time to develop as a fantastic winger, but has managed to score 38 goals and assist 31 times in exactly 200 club appearances.

Delving into the stats from the game. The two Leicester City players are out in front for dribbles attempted and dribbles succeeded as Under came out on top with eight dribbles attempted to Barnes’ five and his four dribbles succeeded is just one more than his teammate on the other flank with three.

The two also played a key part in finding their partners in blue. Evans and Ndidi join the duo with two key passes played in yesterday’s game. Under could have grabbed a goal and an assist from the game if it wasn’t for Praet being tackled in the nick of time by an AEK defender that avoided the Greek side going 3-0 down.

Barnes has only recently turned 23 and has gone from strength to strength in a Leicester City shirt. Out of the 11 games this season in the Premier League, the winger has started eight matches and has been featured ten times only missing one game which was Leicester’s victory against Sheffield United last weekend.

Last season in the Premier League, Barnes scored six goals and assisted eight in 36 games that he featured in the Leicester line-up.  That averages to a goal contributions every three games roughly. This season, three goals and one assist in ten games sees the winger on the same trajectory as last season and he will be hoping he can better himself.

Having scored six last season, the winger clearly wants to improve on his goalscoring ability and is trying to adapt his game of more of an assisted to a finisher which is proving to be an exciting addition to a front-line for Leicester that has bags of goals in them already.

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