Leicester City (away) 19.01.2022

It was a bonkers turnaround, which Spurs deserved on the balance of play – having 27 efforts on goal, 10 of which were on target – with Leicester, as Brendan Rodgers quite rightly said, naïve in conceding a late, late goal to condemn them to defeat and really, it couldn’t happen to a nicer team. 

With games being called off all over the place, it was good to see Spurs out on the turf and although hit by injuries, there was a decent line-up put out by Antonio Conte, with a hectic schedule requiring some rotation.  Leicester, hit by injuries and African Cup of Nations call-ups, also had a fairly strong side out and it looked like it was going to be a close game.

Inside five minutes Leicester made ground on the left and Thomas put a low ball into the near post, where Patson Daka got to it, but the ball glanced off his shin and went across goal to safety. Back in front of their own goal. Leicester failed to clear the ball effectively and it came across to the left corner of the box, where Kane got the ball at his feet. He turned away from two defenders and struck a shot low across the six-yard box and Thomas cleared it from in front of his goal with a fortunate flick of his foot.

Choudhury was late on Reguilon who had moved the ball away from him, giving Tottenham a free kick just outside the box a couple of yards in from the corner of the area. Kane lined it up but hit the end of the wall and Skipp made a good tackle on halfway as Leicester looked to break away. Kane was on the break and fed Reguilon to his left, but the return pass wasn’t accurate enough and although it came off a Foxes defender, it ran too far ahead of Harry to get onto.

A Spurs corner took a touch off a head and it went wide, but Sanchez won it back and Hojbjerg almost got onto Kane’s return back-heel but another corner was conceded. This time Kane won the header, but was stretching and it sailed over the top. Skipp tried a 20-yard shot and a deflection sent the ball off for yet another corner that was headed off by a Leicester for another corner. This time Kane’s header was better and thudded against the bar and out.

Tottenham won another corner when Moura ran across the 18-yard line and let go a shot that Schmeichel had to push behind. It was worked short and Reguilon’s cross from the right got to the far post where Sanchez flicked a header into the side-netting. Leicester had been suffering from Tottenham’s hard press but a break on their left was played inside and they got the benefit of Reguilon’s tackle taking the ball to Daka on the left of the goal and he lifted his shot over Lloris’ low dive to put Leicester ahead against the run of play. It just goes to show that if you don’t take your chances, it can come back and bite you.

The goal lifted the home team and they were more on the front foot for the next ten minutes.  Winks and Sanchez left the ball for each other 30 yards out, allowing Daka to take the ball and build an attack that ended up with Hugo making a fine diving save to his left to push away a shot from outside the box by Maddison.

Spurs did well to win the ball and Skipp’s pass around the back of the defence sent Moura through and Schmeichel came to the edge of his box to block the shot that then ran to Hojbjerg. He took a touch and measured his shot from 18 yards which he saw cleared off the line by Albrighton. It looked like it wasn’t going to be Tottenham’s night.  But then it was. A ball from Winks, after Skipp picked the ball off, sent Kane away down the right. He moved inside into the box and as Soyuncu came across to challenge, Kane came inside him onto his left foot and curled a low shot around Schmeichel that went in off the far post for the Spurs equaliser. It was another fine finish and another Kane goal against Leicester.

Two minutes later, it could have been 2-1 to Spurs when Spurs won the ball again and Moura sent Kane away on the right and with a straight run in the right-hand channel, but this time, he skied his shot when inside the area. He tried another from outside the box to the left, but it lacked power and the keeper got behind the ball as he dived to his right.  Skipp almost found Hojbjerg just inside the area as Kane turned Vestergaard easily and sent the youngster away on the right wing. As the game moved into added time, Brendan Rodgers showed his sporting approach to the game by asking the referee to book Lucas Moura for what was nothing more than a free-kick on the halfway line. I thought that asking for a player to be booked was a bookable offence in itself ?

At half-time, Doherty replaced Royal as the right wing back and he was in the action straight away, providing a nice cross that picked out Reguilon at the far post and he took one touch too many allowing his shot to be blocked for a corner. Schmeichel weakly punched it out to Hojbjerg on the edge of the box and the Dane was too high with his half-volley.  Kane had a pass intercepted just inside the Leicester half-but he won the ball back and Skipp made a good forward run, taking players away from Kane and Harry had a 25 yard pop that was over the top. Spurs were moving the ball quickly and when Leicester fans wanted a foul on James, they weren’t sufficiently bright enough to see that the offside flag had been raised and taking the free-kick quickly, Kane was bursting through into the home team’s half when Choudhury brought him down to earn a yellow card. Doherty had a shooting chance coming in from the right onto his left foot to the right side of the D, but his low effort went a yard wide of the keeper’s right hand post.

Leicester were breaking on Tottenham and when the ball went right from Dewsbury-Hall to Maddison, his powerful shot from the edge of the area was straight at Lloris, who beat the ball out.  Just after the hour, Doherty played a low ball fiercely into the box and Kane couldn’t control it under pressure, but Skipp was there to prod the ball at goal, but it went wide. Even Tanganga was getting in on the act with a 22 yard drive that Schmeichel had to dive to beat out. After Hugo had received treatment after Daka hit him when he came to punch out a free-kick (with the home fans – surely some of the least knowledgeable in the game – booing as he got treatment), Reguilon got a run of the ball just inside the Foxes’ box and hit a low shot that the keeper had to get behind, although it wasn’t hit too hard.

After Tielemens and Kane had exchanged shots over the bar from distance, Maddison and Barnes swapped passes and as Tanganga came in to try and block, the ball came off his boot to hit the post and go in. It was a similar finish to their first goal but from the other side of the goal.  Barnes had only just come on with Lo Celso replacing Winks at the same time and while Conte might have been looking to win the game, it was now a case of trying to salvage something from it.

Kane got the ball just inside the box and turned again, but was crowded out by blue shirts, but it ran forward to Doherty, who had continued his run after passing to Harry and his short was blocked by Schmeichel’s stomach at close range. Immediately, Leicester were trying to run time down with players going down injured and the keeper taking as long as he wanted with goal-kicks. The happy clappers were cheering every throw-in that Leicester got as the game entered the last ten minutes.  Maddison didn’t like it when Lo Celso caught him on the knee and even less when his quick free-kick was played straight to Gio, who easily went past the Leicester midfielder, who made a crude attempt to scythe him down, but wasn’t quite good enough to do so.

When Barnes cut inside Sanchez from the left it looked like he would wrap it up, but a great block from Hojbjerg stopped his shot getting anywhere near goal. With five added minutes announced, it looked like Spurs would make an all out effort to equalise and when Bergwijn went into the box with Choudhury, he went down and the referee showed no interest in a penalty but Soyuncu spat some vitriol at the Dutchman, who got up and pushed him in the chest. The Turkish defender went down like a sack of spuds and Leicester players wanted Stevie sent off saying that he had elbowed Soyuncu in the face, but, rightly, a yellow card was all that came out of it and a free-kick for the home team. Doherty had been brought down off the ball too, but again, nothing was given.

As the ignorant home fans were telling the Spurs support that it was happening again, Moura turned the ball inside to Pierre Hojbjerg, who floated a ball into the right side of the box where Doherty brought the ball down on his chest getting to it before the substitute Justin. Soyuncu tried to clear, but made a hash of it, allowing the ball to drop into the path of Bergwijn who smacked it joyfully into the net from six yards out. Rather than letting the fact that Spurs had equalised be enough, Tottenham gathered the ball and got back to wait for Leicester to regroup for the kick off. 

Almost straight from the kick off Tielemens played a poor pass that was picked off by Hojbjerg. He played it to Kane inside the Spurs half in the centre circle. He was alert to Bergwijn being ahead of him and played it through past the hugely poor Soyuncu for the Dutchman to run onto. He took the ball to Schmeichel’s left and although it took him wide, he screwed his shot back across goal, beating Soyuncu’s effort to get back and it went in off the far post with the Turkish player trying to keep it out with his hands as it went over the line. 

It turned out that the Leicester fans were more knowledgeable than I gave them credit for, because, yes indeed, it happened again.

Burton Bradstock