Leicester City of England midfielder, Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi has expressed great delight and excitement with his club’s ‘great start’ to the new year with victory over Newcastle United in Sunday’s English Premier League fixture at Saint James’ Park, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although The Foxes were away to The Magpies, Ndidi and his pals put up a gritty performance to carry the day with a 2-1 scoreline, much to the Super Eagles’ star’s delight and the former Nath Boys of Lagos and Racing Genk of Belgium central defender-turned-holding midfielder went on to reveal how thrilled he was with the result.
He admitted he was also happy to play a key role in the victory for Leicester, who are now third placed in the EPL, a point behind table-toppers Liverpool, as The Foxes won their first game of 2021 in a game that saw him return to his side’s starting line-up, after he was rested for the trip to Crystal Palace on December 28.
While his Nigerian teammate Kelechi Iheanacho remained rooted to the bench for the entirety of Sunday’s match, Ndidi reached a 150-game milestone for Leicester, exactly three years after he joined The Foxes from Genk, as he got the nod from Leicester’s coach, Brendan Rodgers for him to start at St. James’ Park.
It also meant that Ndidi donned Leicester’s jersey for the 150th time in his career, just over a week after he also made his club’s starting line-up in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Boxing Day, and he joined a King Power Stadium milestone that includes Kasper Schmeichel, Jamie Vardy, Wes Morgan, Marc Albrighton, Demarai Gray and Christian Fuchs.
Of Ndidi’s 150 milestone appearances for The Foxes, 128 came for him in the EPL, eight each in the English FA Cup and Carabao League Cup, as well as four in the UEFA Champions League and two in the UEFA Europa League.
Ndidi, who tallied eight goals and assisted seven others prior to Sunday’s clash, was also happy seeing Leicester get the breakthrough nine minutes into the second half against their hosts, as James Maddison fired home a ferocious shot after Jamie Vardy pulled the ball back.
Another stunning strike from Youri Tielemans made it 2-0 for the visitors in the 72nd minute, before Andy Carroll’s lovely volley in the 82nd minute halved the deficit to set up a nervy finish for Rodgers’ side, but Ndidi and his colleagues were able to hold on for maximum points.
Ndidi took to social media afterwards to celebrate Leicester winning their first match in the New Year, with a victorious plus adding gloss to the occasion of his 150th appearance for the 2016 EPL champions, and he posted with glee: “Great to start the year with a win 💙🦊.”
