Leicester City midfielder, Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi got full duration action for his side, but Kelechi Iheanacho played only the last few seconds, as goals from James Maddison and Harvey Barnes gave The Foxes a 2-0 win over Southampton, megasportsarena.com reports.
While Ndidi ended with seven points out of ten for is efforts in the game at King Power Stadium, Iheanacho could not be scored due to the limited minutes he got under his boots during the encounter, which took their side temporarily up to second position on the English Premier League’s table.
Maddison’s seventh goal of the season gave The Foxes a half-time lead (37) as he spun away from Jack Stephens to collect Youri Tielemans’ pass before firing high into the net beyond Alex McCarthy, but it was not until the 90th minute that Iheanacho got off the bench in place of Jamie Vardy.
Stuart Armstrong came closest to rescuing a point for Southampton after his long-range shot struck the crossbar, while Vardy missed a glorious chance to put the contest to bed when his close-range shot was saved by McCarthy before he hobbled off late on.
Michael Obafemi and Nathan Tella were both missing in The Saints’ squad, as Barnes sealed only Leicester’s fourth home league win of the season in the fifth minute of stoppage time, after he collected another Tielemans pass before confidently stroking his shot beyond McCarthy.
These two sides last met in the East Midlands last January, when Southampton emerged victorious thanks to goals from Stuart Armstrong and Danny Ings – and the visitors made life uncomfortable from the outset against Leicester, with Theo Walcott and Che Adams proving a handful.
Leicester, who had lost four of their previous eight home league fixtures, threatened sporadically as Marc Albrighton’s pass was dummied by Vardy for Barnes to shoot first time, but McCarthy saved with two strong hands.
Kasper Schmeichel, on his 400th appearance for the Foxes, was alert to keep out Adams’ fierce shot at his near post but the hosts began to crank up the pressure and went ahead in the 37th minute.
After Saints cleared an initial cross, Tielemans’ fine ball put Maddison in and the midfielder held off Stephens to fire a thumping effort from an acute angle that beat McCarthy at his near post.
Ibrahima Diallo felt he was fouled by Ndidi in the build-up, but VAR Jon Moss may have concluded there had been too many phases between the incident and Maddison finding the net.
