Earlier in the season, Leicester City travelled to the Amex Stadium to face Brighton in the hopes of making it five straight Premier League wins.  

At the time, Brendan Rodgers’ side sat in second place, eleven points behind league leaders Liverpool. They had enjoyed a great start to the season and were looking to continue their form with a victory on the south coast.

Goalless first half

Leicester could’ve had the lead early on after Ayoze Perez struck the bar and Harvey Barnes dragged his shot wide. Brighton coped well with the pressure and fashioned some chances of their own but they were unable to break the deadlock.

The Foxes seemed to be happy to allow the hosts to bring the ball forward and control possession as they waited to pounce on any mistake. 

Clinical counter-attack

After the break, the game stepped up a level. Brighton pushed forward, piling the pressure onto the Leicester defence. However, Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu coped well with the pace of Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard.

Once the Foxes had dealt with the danger, the attacking players jolted into action. James Maddison picked up the ball from a Brighton corner and instantly looked for a counter attack. Jamie Vardy and Perez both ran for the space, leaving Adam Webster and Shane Duffy with a lot of ground to cover.

It was like a flashback to the title winning season in 2016, as Vardy led a pacey and ruthless counter that no team would able to prevent, even if they knew what was about to happen.

He broke free from the Seagulls defence and slid the ball across the box to Perez who tapped home giving Leicester the lead.

Embed from Getty Images

Calm under pressure

Brighton pushed for an equaliser for the next 20 minutes but once again they couldn’t break through and failed to have a shot on target.

Graham Potter’s side were dominating possession but attacks were constantly thwarted by the Foxes, who eventually forced a mistake out of Davy Propper with eight minutes to go.

Mat Ryan played a bouncing pass towards the Dutch midfielder on the edge of his own box and his touch fell straight to Demarai Gray who was then brought down in the area by Dan Burn.

Vardy’s penalty was saved by Ryan but the rebound was headed home by Maddison. However, after consulting VAR, the referee ordered the spot-kick to be retaken due to encroachment and the league’s top scorer stayed composed and made no mistake at his second attempt.

Embed from Getty Images

Same again in the reverse fixture?

Leicester will be hoping to repeat this performance on Tuesday evening as they look to cement their place inside the top four.

It appeared as if the counter attacking style, which the Foxes have became known for over the years, was the key to breaking Brighton down and Rodgers could use this approach to help his side pick up all three points once again.

VAVEL Logo
About the author