Leicester City defence dominates internationally

The Leicester City defence is on a bit of a tear. They haven’t conceded in the league since Burnley, and the subsequent run of 334 minutes without a goal have made them the tightest back line in the Premier League.

This led to something never achieved by the Foxes: all of the regular back five played a full 90 minutes in the most recent round of international fixtures.

As if that wasn’t good enough, they all extended the goalless run, as each of them was part of yet another clean sheet.

Nothing unusual for Denmark captain Kasper Schmeichel, who kept his 5th straight international clean sheet, while Northern Ireland mainstay Jonny Evans was key as they shut out the Netherlands.

Çağlar Söyüncü already has 28 caps but had been in and out of the team since coming to Leicester. He is firmly back as their first choice, and a 0-0 draw with Iceland qualified them for Euro 2020.

Ricardo Pereira somehow only has 6 caps for Portugal, but did play the whole of their 6-0 win. The best performance of the lot was his fellow fullback Ben Chilwell, who continued his push to be England’s first choice.

The defender’s delivery was spectacular early on as he produced a hat trick of assists inside the first 25 minutes in an eventual 7-0 win. James Maddison also got his first England cap in the game.

I don’t say this often, but it was Wilfred Ndidi who let down the defensive record. His Nigeria team started their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign with a win over Benin, but they did concede. Shame on Wilf.

Nigeria and Ndidi will go again today against Lesotho. So too could Pereira, Söyüncü and Chilwell as Portugal take on Lucembourg, Turkey face Andorra and England play Kosovo.

Kasper’s Denmark have an import final qualifier tomorrow in Ireland, while Evans and Northern Ireland travel to Germany on Tuesday.