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Braga 3 Leicester City 3
First Half
What I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving week, is no simulated crowd noise and a hot mic behind Kasper Schmeichel’s goal. I would not have been shocked if Brendan Rodger’s used all five subs at half, because it could only get better.
Things got underway very quickly with a slick attack from Braga, something we didn’t see in their visit to the KP, with a dribble by Medeiros that the Foxes looked allergic to and ripped a shot that was blocked and fell all the way back to Ali Elmusrati who fired it from 20 yards out low and across the goal to take a 1-0 lead.
Leicester went straight to work to recover their lead and only had to wait 5 minutes to get their reward. A dart into the box by Kelechi Iheanacho led to a tackle from the defense that fell directly to Harvey Barnes. Now, I know you might be thinking after his miss at Anfield, but he didn’t even think about it and just shot immediately with his left foot directly at the keeper’s near post to level it out at 1-1.
Not much happened for the next 10 minutes as both teams kind of moved the ball around respectively creating very little. The once again, Braga was easily slipped in behind the defense and Kasper had to come to the rescue. That slender draw wasn’t to last long as Braga once again threatened a very weak back 5 and made it 2-1 when Horta came running into the box and played in Paulinho for the score.
Kasper ended the half with three saves, which were all vital because the deficit might have been too big for an all out attack from the Foxes to overcome.
Second Half
Two subs to start the half, with Christian Fuchs and Dennis Praet coming off for Wesley Fofana and Youri Tielemans. In my opinion, Marc Albrighton was lucky to not be yanked after an absolutely poor first half that only saw him with 58% passing accuracy.
Luke Thomas and Harvey Barnes combined for Leicester’s first real attack down the left flank and a Barnes nutmeg on the Braga defender opened up a run for Thomas to play it back into the middle of the box, but Braga cleared the danger.
Cengiz Ünder had a helluva crack at goal at as Leicester finally started tot control more of the ball, getting their team forward. James Justin had basically assumed Thomas’ role at LB playing in some foul crosses. The Foxes made some more subs shortly after with Ünder coming off for James Maddison and Harvey Barnes going off for Jamie Vardy. Vardy was deemed as slightly offsides as Braga were on their first goal in my opinion, and could’ve been 2-2.
I would love to see Brendan’s notes so maybe we could know what formation we’re actually playing. Lil Wes seems to be playing RB and played a clever 1-2 with Youri to get a free kick just outside the Braga box. Maddison’s free kick didn’t make it clean past the wall and led to an instant counter from Braga. They slipped past the left flank and all most had a tap in. Ayoze Perez enters from the bench.
Crosses into Albrighton aren’t going to score many goals against this height of the back four, but it leads to a corner which should’ve been scored, but Evans only scores in his own net these days.
LUKE THOMAS!!! James Maddison slinks down the left flank, cuts his man back, crosses it with his right and Luke Thomas stabs it home to make it 2-2. After five subs, Leicester really looked more like themselves and controlled the majority of the play.
Perez looked great after coming on and moments later Lil Wes was so close to scoring the winner with a header. What was almost the winning goal from Leicester via a cross by Vardy to Perez, Matheus then took perfectly and Lil Wes got caught on the line, Galeno slipped in Fransergio right past Evans to take them ahead for the third time on the evening.
James Maddison should never take another corner.
I TAKE IT ALL BACK MARC ALBRIGHTON! I TAKE IT ALL BACK SIR GOATBRIGHTON! A beautiful back post ball to Jamie Vardy and it is 3-3 in 90+5!!!