The Community Shield took a while to spring to life, but ultimately, in the dying minutes, Leicester City won themselves a crucial penalty and Kelechi Iheanacho won the his team another piece of silverware. For Manchester City, this match will mostly be remembered as a game which saw the debut of Jack Grealish and not much else as most of the team's higher wattage stars didn't start the match as they recover from a grueling summer. That, however, will do little to dampen the enjoyment of Leicester City, a side which despite the odds continues to excel.
It was a sleepy affair for both sides, especially in the first half, as Leicester played relatively conservatively while a Manchester City squad, which included a number of youths and second-stringers, was unable to make much of a dent in the defense Brendan Rodgers set up. In fact, City's only real chance in the first half came from a Leicester corner kick which lead to a counterattack at Riyad Mahrez's feet. He was able to square up the Leicester defense in the box and cut onto his left foot, but his shot was deflected over the bar.
The best chance for Leicester City came just before the end of the first half. Harvey Barnes and James Maddison worked the ball down the left before finding a ball across the face of goal to Jamie Vardy's feet eight yards out. Vardy executed a cool finish, slotting the ball back across from right to left against keeper Zach Steffen's momentum. Steffen, however, managed to arrest his momentum and fling his legs out enough to deflect the ball onto the post.
The second half was much the same until the dying minutes. The most excitement was brought by new Manchester City signing Jack Grealish simply stepping onto the pitch. There was one great chance for City, against from a Leicester attacking set piece when Ricardo Periera stepped up and turned the ball over as the last line of defense leading Mahrez to have a relatively free 40 yard run on goal which ultimately Wilfried Ndidi recovered on just enough to force Mahrez to blast over.
But at the 85th minute, as if neither team wanted to bother with penalties, things picked up. Perhaps it was driven by a raft of new legs, Brendan Rodgers made the rare quadruple substitution in the 71st minute, by Leicester ratcheted up the pressure. First it was a throughball from substitute Marc Albrighton to fellow sub, speedster Patson Daka that Steffen had to alertly spring off his line to foil, but then minutes later the moment of the match.
Nathan Ake lingered on the ball in defense and Kelechi Iheanacho pounced forcing a sloppy turnover and springing by the defender to pick the ball up. Iheanacho brought him down which brought about the penalty whistle (albeit after Leicester were allowed to play advantage leading to yet another strong save from Steffen). Kelechi stepped up and won his side the match.
Leicester City 1, Manchester City 0 (2H)
