April 02, (THEWILL) – On Saturday at Old Trafford, a lethargic Manchester United were forced to work extremely hard to earn a 1-1 draw with Leicester City, after Kelechi Iheanacho gave the visitors the lead.
At a time when news around the club focused on the manager hunt to take over from interim boss Ralf Rangnick, the transition period appeared to have dulled the returning Red Devils, who were missing Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo due to illness.
Leicester had the first chance in the early exchanges after only two minutes, as Harvey Barnes’ looping header from a free-kick went over the bar and nestled into the roof of the net.
After 10 minutes, Barnes twice fired wide from range, leaving David de Gea untested but well aware of the potential threat in front of him.
United conceded a lot of control early on but still had some great moments on the ball. Leicester’s rapid passing was an issue for United, but the Foxes lacked a clinical forward presence and that stifled any advances they created.
Paul Pogba made his presence felt with his side’s first genuine attempt on goal 20 minutes in, but only just. Playing up top in Ronaldo’s absence, the Frenchman delivered an arching header comfortably into Kasper Schmeichel’s gloves.
When Bruno Fernandes found himself through on goal, Schmeichel was forced to make a proper save. The Dane spread himself wide and got a foot to Fernandes’ strike, snuffing out what was the game’s best chance thus far.
On the half-hour mark, Iheanacho squandered a golden opportunity for Leicester. His curler from the edge of the area completely failed to test De Gea once more, going wide.
Yet, that mis-kick was an appropriate way to sum up the first 45 minutes that saw both teams threaten to make good use of chances created but lacking the actual end product in the attacking third.
This pattern persisted into the second half. Although after the introduction of Marcus Rashford, United looked the most dangerous, quality attempts on Schmeichel’s goal remained few and far between.
It was Leicester who took the lead against the odds. Shortly after the hour mark, the Foxes went on a counter, and James Maddison’s beautiful cross was expertly headed in by Kelechi Iheanacho.
With 24 minutes left, the lead was gone, as Fred blasted into the net after Schmeichel unfortunately spilt a shot down to his feet.
As the game progressed, Leicester grew in confidence, and a header from Wesley Fofana almost put them back in front, but David de Gea made an outstanding stop to deny the young Frenchman.
Leicester believed they had their victorious goal with 10 minutes to go when James Maddison scored, but VAR intervened and identified a slight foul by Iheanacho in the build-up.
In stoppage time, United took control, and both Rashford and Jadon Sancho had chances to score a late winner. However, both failed to make the most of a late cross, with the latter dragging his strike wide in what was the game’s final real chance.
United therefore missed out on an opportunity to overtake Tottenham into fifth place, despite the fact that they are now level on points before they travel to face Everton in their next fixture.
Leicester climbef up to ninth place with that point, but their focus will now shift to Thursday’s UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final against PSV Eindhoven.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
