Leicester City 3-0 Brighton and Hove Albion: A double from majestic James Maddison helped the hosts thump the Seagulls

Leicester City finished game week 13 in style by battering Brighton and Hove Albion at the King Power Stadium. The game was wrapped up in the first half by the hosts courtesy of two outrageous strikes by James Maddison and a tap-in from Jamie Vardy.

It was the visitors who started the game off the liveliest. In the 10^th minute, Brighton’s Alireza Jahanbakhsh found space inside the pitch and slid in Danny Welbeck, who forced a terrific foot save from Denmark number one Kasper Schmeichel. It was a moment that, if Brighton converted, it would’ve changed the entire complexion of the game.

Despite early warning signs by the visitors, it was Leicester who made the breakthrough with James Maddison opening the scoring on the 27^th mark.

The ball fell kindly to the Foxes number 10 after Ben White shanked his clearance. Maddison made no mistake and fired a low driven strike from the edge of the area into the bottom right-corner, putting the Foxes one-nil up.

The opener was a sign of good things to come. After the half hour mark, Wilfred Ndidi sprayed a sublime diagonal pass to James Justin. The England under-21 international pulled the ball back to Ayoze Perez on the edge of the box. who pulled the trigger first time and forced a fantastic save from Matt Ryan down low to his right. It denied the Spainard his second goal in as many games.

After 41 minutes, a similar move came about. Marc Albrighton fired a pass inside to Perez, who drove forwards before finding Justin. The full-back hit a pinpoint cross between the six-yard box and penalty spot for talisman Jamie Vardy to double Leicester’s lead. It was a free-flowing move which deserved the goal at the end of it.

The main highlight of the match came from the majestic Maddison. Perez slid in Vardy initially, but the striker was unbalanced and had to play the ball back to Maddison. The attacking midfielder stepped into the area, dished out a double-stepover and a trademark feint before bending the ball astonishingly in the top left corner.

Brendan Rodgers’ side were mature with how they went about the second half, wary of a busy festive schedule as well as Europa League priorities coming up. Brighton may have had 12 shots throughout the encounter, but they lacked quality throughout and posed little to no threat in the second half either. Neal Maupay had attempted a bicycle-kick late on which was easy pickings for Schmeichel.

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers was delighted with his team’s performance:

“I really enjoyed the game from a tactical perspective, because we started off in a shape and Brighton surprised us a little bit with how they played. We then had to adjust our shape and then we changed it again at half-time… So, I enjoyed that aspect of the game, but (we scored) three outstanding goals, different types of goals, but of great quality and then in the second half we didn’t need to chase it. We could control the game and play a little bit more on the counter.”

Brighton boss Graham Potter was gracious in defeat:

“The response of the players in the second half was really good, they stuck at it and kept competing. Overall in the end we weren’t quite good enough to get the three points.”

“We caused them a few problems, but the boxes are where it matters and Leicester were better than us in that area, so they deserved the win.”

Leicester City go third in the table in the hope to cement a Champions League place this season. As for Brighton, they remain in 16^th spot, two points off the drop. Despite looking sharp and playing some intricate football this campaign, the points tally isn’t reflecting their performances.

The Seagulls are in desperate need to pick up points and face relegation-battlers Fulham on Wednesday night. The Foxes are also in action that evening, and face high-flying Everton at the King Power.

 

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