A defensive display of some merit is undone by a refereeing decision of rather less quality as the first leg of Leicester City’s Champions League quarter-final ends in narrow defeat.
Here’s how the action in Madrid played out.
Atletico Madrid 1 Leicester City 0
An Antoine Griezmann penalty made it advantage Atletico in their quarter-final with the Foxes.
The goal was reward for the home team’s dominance even if the penalty, awarded for a foul on the Frenchman by Marc Albrighton, should never have been given – replays showed that the offence took place outside the Leicester box.
The visitors came to defend and did so impressively, generally reducing Madrid to pots at goal from long distance. But the Foxes rarely strung more than a few passes together all night and of the five shots they managed, none of them were on target.
Atletico only worked Leicester keeper Kasper Schemichel sporadically themselves, perhaps unsurprisingly as the match involved two teams who excel on the counter-attack.
Foxes boss Craig Shakespeare named his strongest available XI after ringing the changes in the weekend loss at Everton, with Danny Simpson and Christian Fuchs returning at full-back, Wilfred Ndidi and Riyad Mahrez back in midfield and Shinji Okazaki supporting Jamie Vardy up front.
Yohan Benalouane, who had a fine match, continued to fill in for the injured Wes Morgan, the skipper travelling with the squad as he continues to recover from a back injury.
Fellow centre-half Robert Huth will be suspended for the second leg of the tie on Tuesday after picking up a yellow card in Madrid, which will please his 1.9% ownership as Shakespeare will surely now play him in Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace while potentially resting many other key players once again.
The Foxes’ main Fantasy asset, the 16.4%-owned Vardy, performed his usual pacey irritant role well. But he lacked for service with Okazaki relatively close by in the first-half and was completely starved of the stuff once Andy King came on for the Japanese international after the break to shore up a midfield that had been over-run for 45 minutes.
Vardy’s ownership will now have very real concerns on his pitch time at Selhurst Park after the striker was replaced on the hour mark in Sunday’s defeat. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Shakespeare gave Vardy’s replacement from the bench last night, Islam Slimani, a start up front. Indeed, the Algerian was named in the first XI at Goodison and bagged the Foxes’ first goal.
Despite returning five goals and an assist in his last six Gameweeks, Vardy suffered a loss of 13,000+ owners prior to last weekend’s deadline, with more than 33,000 already ushering him to the exit ahead of this weekend.
Other Leicester rotation risks include the 8.6%-owned Riyad Mahrez – a peripheral figure in Madrid – and the industrious Albrighton (1.4%), who could be rested against Palace, with Demarai Gray the obvious alternative.
The Foxes have now lost back-to-back matches after winning six straight in all competitions when Shakespeare first took the helm.
A trip to the in-form Palace – one of three consecutive away league fixtures up next for the Foxes – suggests that the dip in form could continue while the Champions League remains such a major, if understandable, distraction.
The Foxes had their double Gameweek 37 confirmed with yesterday’s announcement, although an away trip to Manchester City, combined with a King Power Stadium clash against Spurs, are hardly favourable match-ups.
Leicester City XI: Schmeichel, Simpson, Benalouane, Huth, Fuchs, Mahrez, Drinkwater, Ndidi, Albrighton, Okazaki (King 45), Vardy (Slimani 77).
Subs not used: Zieler, Chilwell, King, Amartey, Slimani, Gray, Ulloa.
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