City draw with league leaders Leicester in thriller

Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Hull City 2 - 2 Leicester City

Sky Bet Championship

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 24,605

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City Correspondent

The Tigers shared the spoils for the fourth match in a row – but despite an early penalty miss, it was another point well-won against formidable opposition. And they don’t come more much formidable than league leaders Leicester.

Liam Rosenior switched things up again by dropping Tyler Morton and Ozan Tufan to the bench, and bringing back Regan Slater and Anass Zaroury – and Leicester, like West Brom and Preston in recent weeks, proved to be a more even match for the Tigers’ style of play, so a close contest had been anticipated. It could all have been so different, though, had the Tigers not passed up a golden chance to take an early lead.

The first five minutes were mostly played in City’s half, keeper Ryan Allsop resisting punting it forward in favour of picking out defenders, despite Leicester’s close marking.

The strategy here was to lure the visitors into coming so far forward that the Tigers could hit them on the break, and this they did in the sixth minute, as Regan Slater stormed down the right – but he was tripped by Stephy Mavididi on the edge of the area.

Fabio Carvalho stepped up to take the spot kick… but it was a weak one, and he put it straight down the middle, making it a relatively easy stop for Mads Hermansen. What an opportunity passed up against the league leaders – would they get another?

Yes! They would… and less than 10 minutes later. And it would be Carvalho who would more than make amends for his penalty miss, as he pounded on a defensive blunder by Wout Faes.

Great pressing from Anass Zaroury forced the big-haired Belgian to surrender possession just in front of the area and Carvalho, from about 15 yards out on the left, pulled the trigger at just the right time to beat the advancing Hermansen – and immediately pump up the volume at the MKM Stadium.

Leicester aren’t the league leaders for nothing, of course, and when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall hit the post a couple of minutes later it was a sign that the Tigers would have to be on their game to come away with all three points – as well as an indication that there were surely more goals in this.

And so it proved, as just after the hour mark Leicester levelled. Jean Michael Seri barged into Abdul Fatawu just inside the area, and though Fatawu arguably went down a bit easily, this one falls into the “seen ‘em given” category. Up stepped Jamie Vardy… and he made no mistake, blasting it past Allsop.

The Foxes started to turn the screw a bit after this point, and Alfie Jones did well to hold off Vardy as he advanced towards the area with just Allsop to beat.

Moments later, Jacob Greaves was booked for a foul on Yunus Akgün inches outside the area – and the resulting free kick was charged down by the wall before Ryan Giles was at last able to clear.

The card was significant – it was Greaves’ 10th of the season, which means the Tigers defender, a lynchpin of the side who has been mercurial of late, will be suspended for the next two matches, and one of those is at Leeds. It was a tightrope he’d been walking for a while – but his absence will be keenly felt.

Soon after the second half City were in a great position to retake the lead as Jaden Philogene made a great run down the right and crossed to Ömür, in the centre of the box, but he couldn’t quite get his feet underneath it before the Foxes managed to clear.

Ömür was down injured in front of the East Stand for some time before Slater did really well to hold off his man and play in Philogene in a central position, but he was soon closed down. He wasn’t getting much of a look-in this afternoon – the Foxes had, by and large, got the measure of him. Play was then stopped again for a time as Leicester’s Harry Winks lay on the turf.

It had been a bit of a stuttering first 15 minutes of the half, with neither side gaining much momentum.

However, on the stroke of the hour, both sides suddenly found their mojo again, but the Tigers would go from joy to anguish inside barely two minutes.

Played in by Seri, Zaroury drilled a brilliant shot from the edge of the area into the bottom right-hand corner to get the home fans bouncing again.

But their celebrations were short-lived as Leicester equalised again in clinical fashion, almost from the kick-off. Fatuwu played a pinpoint through-ball to Vardy, who evaded Slater and Coyle in the box and smashed it past Allsop from 10 yards.

Leicester were awarded a dangerous free kick in the 70th minute after Seri was booked for a foul on Fatuwu, but it was again charged down by the Tigers wall. At the other end, Ömür attempted a bicycle kick from the centre of the box that, had it gone in, would have had the stadium in raptures.

Faes had a header saved in the 73rd minute as the tempo began to increase in this finely poised match, and shortly afterwards it was Vardy’s turn to lie prone in the penalty area after the slimmest of shouts for another spot kick – and to say he was getting no sympathy from the North Stand would be something of an understatement.

Vardy soon left the field to a chorus of boos, as well as chants about that famous court case involving his wife, which he must be well accustomed to by now. He was one of just two Leicester substitutions – and Rosenior made none at all this time.

Despite nine minutes of added time, City couldn’t make the breakthrough and they weathered a couple of very late Leicester corners (their only ones of the match). Another last-minute heartbreak like the one dealt by Southampton would have been very tough to take, but they held on – and it’s worth noting that Leicester’s only two shots on target were, of course, their goals.

The match ended with Lewie Coyle lying injured in the six-yard area surrounded by physios. He was eventually helped to his feet, and could be seen walking very gingerly indeed towards the tunnel as those who were left in the stadium applauded him off.

A point against the league leaders, objectively, is a decent achievement, and City are now unbeaten in four. But it means they drop out of the top six on goal difference, and must sit out next week as Coventry play in the FA Cup. The Tigers certainly need to rediscover what winning is like if they are to reclaim that sixth place and hang on it come May 4.