Leicester City vs Bournemouth Report: Leicester City match report
On a rather emotional day at the Kings Power Stadium, Leicester City walked away the deserved 2-0 winners over Bournemouth. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, but in actuality, the game was an absolute midfield dogfight.
The Cherries struggled to gain control in the middle of the park, with Dan Gosling having arguably his worst game in a Bournemouth shirt. The Cherries captain and Jefferson Lerma struggled to gain control in a rather packed midfield dominated by Leicester City.
Today, both Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi were immense for the Foxes and it showed. In comparison, Leicester City completed 607 passes to Bournemouth’s 420, with 867% of those coming in their own half.
However, Leicester City for all their dominance struggled to get either James Maddison or Jamie Vardy into the game. It was frustrations galore in that first half, despite getting the lead via Wes Morgan’s left-foot and even that was by sheer luck.
One insistence that defined that was Demarai Gray. The 22 year old cut in from the right-hand side and bent the Cherries defense at his will. But he then proceeded to scuff the shot and instead of laying it off to Tielemans, he handed to a Bournemouth player.
The game continued on in that fashion, with the game still in the balance as the first half ended. A half-team talk did make the game a bit more even, with Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe eventually relieving Adam Smith of his duties.
The Englishman had struggled to cope with Gray’s pace and directness, which the Foxes or Gray himself failed to capitalize on. Diego Rico, on the other hand, did comparatively well and forced the young winger to cut inside.
However, given Leicester City’s dominance in the second half as well, it looked like Brendan Rodger’s half-time talk did change things. Simply because, the second half saw both James Maddison and Jamie Vardy get on the ball more and Tielemans switched to a box-to-box role.
An all action midfielder, the 23-year-old flourishes in a box-to-box role rather than a deep lying one. That changed the game around for Leicester City, and they started to threaten Asmir Begovic’s goal, time after time in the second half.
Eventually that paid off, with Jamie Vardy out-leaping Chris Mepham, Nathan Ake and Asmir Begovic, to bury a Roberto Pereira cross. That effectively ended the game for Bournemouth and ensured Brendan Rodger’s third win on the bounce.
Here is what a few excited Leicester City fans had to say after the victory