Okazaki opener leads Leicester to easy win over Brighton

Leicester City cruised past newly promoted Brighton & Hove Albion to bag their first win of the 2017/18 Premier League Campaign in a entertaining home opener.

The Foxes got off to a dream start through Shinji Okazaki, who tapped home his second goal of the season after Riyad Mahrez was given acres of space down the right hand side to cut in and fire a shot at goal. Brighton goalkeeper Mathew Ryan managed to get a hand to it, only for the rebound to fall straight to Okazaki, who calmly slotted home to give Leicester the lead in the opening minute.

From there Leicester dominated, working the ball around nicely and forcing the visitors into numerous comical mistakes. Jamie Vardy came close in the 16th minute after Okazaki did brilliantly to force left-back Markus Suttner into an awful back pass, pouncing on the loose ball and squaring it to Vardy, whose first-time strike was blocked, only for the rebound to fall straight back to him. Unfortunately for the Englishman the ball got caught in his feet, leading him to completely scuff what should have been an easy tap-in.

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Vardy nearly had another chance to double the lead four minutes later after Okazaki managed to win the ball back in the Brighton half, squaring it to Wilfred Ndidi who played an excellent through-ball. Unfortunately for the Foxes, Ryan was quick off his line to deny the striker.

As the half wore on Brighton grew into the game, but created very little when it came to clear-cut chances, with Kasper Schmeichel rarely being called into action.

The Foxes came closest on the nick of halftime, with Okazaki getting on the end of a Vardy cross at the near post, only for his header to fizz just wide of goal.

The visitors came out looking slightly better to start the 2nd half, but any hopes of a comeback were dashed by new signing Harry Maguire, who rose the highest to get on the end of an excellent Riyad Mahrez corner to head home his first goal in a Leicester shirt to give the Foxes the 2-0 lead.

From there Leicester were in cruise control, with Brighton's only real chance of a consolation coming from a Tomer Hemed long range effort that Schmeichel was able to rather comfortably palm away.

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Overall it was a comfortable win for the Foxes that'll certainly give them a confidence booster for next weeks league clash against a rejuvenated Manchester United side. The only worry is a potential injury to Vardy, who hobbled off in the dying stages of the match. Craig Shakespeare mentioned in his post-match comments that he believed it was just a knock, but considering Leicester's current injury list, it's a sour end to what was a great home opener.