Manchester United’s Back Ups Frustrated By Leicester 1-2, Handing City the Title
Manchester United were defeated by Leicester 1-2, the defeat means that Manchester City is the Champions of the Premier League and Leicester are now extremely likely to qualify for Champions League.
Because of the congested week, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had to rotate his squad heavily, with 10 changes being made compared to Sunday’s game against Aston Villa and a debut for Anthony Elanga.
Ole said he was going to rotate heavily when speaking to the press and this was the likeliest game. Manchester United face Liverpool on Thursday.
Leicester City come in to the game with a slight dip in league form, but still have a five point cushion on West Ham for the last Champions League spot, Leicester had a grasp on the Champions League last season but faltered at the end.
Manchester United 1, Leicester City 2
Leicester could smell blood against Man Utd’s heavily rotated squad and attacked early and often putting massive pressure on United.
Luke Thomas got the scoring going for Leicester early in the 11th minute after he smashed home a volley after sustained amount pressure from Leicester.
Despite the obvious chemistry problems between the team, the attackers looked lively. Amad, Anthony Elanga and Mason Greenwood were taking on defenders and looking good on the ball.
Mason Greenwood leveled the game in the 16th minute after he received the ball from Amad he wiggled in the box to find space. He expertly picked out the bottom left hand corner of the goal, squeaking it past Kasper Schmiechel.
The game appeared to settle after the Greenwood goal. Man Utd were able to hold onto possession a bit and take some pressure off their backline.
After the initial 20 minutes of the first half the game drastically settled down and both sides went into the half leveled.
A lot of the same in the beginning of the second half, both teams trying to stay compact and get possession. After a stable few minutes of possession Leicester City won a corner.
On the subsequent corner Cagar Soyuncu out jumped his marker and headed home in the 66th minute. This was his first goal of the season and a crucial one for Leicester’s Champions League hopes.
In the 73rd minute Youri Tielemans had an opportunity to finish the game after Jamie Vardy redirected a cross across the face of goal, Tielemans could not stretch enough to get a shot on goal.
Manchester United were hardly getting good possession in the second half and constantly gave up the ball in their own half by trying to dribble out or with poor clearances, this allowed Leicester to compound pressure.
Manchester United never really got close to equalizing, a couple of half chances after Bruno Fernandes came on is all United could muster at the end.
A decent game to give some younger players some minutes, but what if everyone was fit and had the energy to go? Tough game for Manchester United because of the current fixture overload to end the season.
Mason Greenwood was easily the man of the match, a good finish for the youngster who is in really good form, Greenwood has six goals in his last six league appearances.
A good shout to someone like Axel Tuanzebe or Nemanja Matic for defending nobly against a potent Leicester attack, you would have hoped for the defense to be lights out, but being realistic two goals allowed for a defense that never started together is not bad.
Manchester City were always going to win the title but United would like to be as competitive as they possibly could in every match.
Leicester looked destined to return to the Champions League after losing to Manchester United on the final day last season. Leicester can clinch the spot if West Ham drop points in any of their remaining matches.
Manchester United would look to bounce back after a frustrating second half against Leicester. United will host their biggest rivals Liverpool on Thursday.