Leicester City drew with Aston Villa 1-1 in the Carabao Cup to set up a tense second leg at Villa Park, despite the hosts dominating the game. Brendan Rodgers’ Foxes kept 70 per cent of the possession as the visitors were suffocated from seeing the ball, yet Villa still led for much of the game through Frederic Guilbert. Kelechi Iheanacho eventually levelled the scoring, but it was Leicester City’s playmaker James Maddison who stole the show and will have impressed the onlooking England manager Gareth Southgate.
The 23-year-old did little to help out the backline behind him, but for the majority of the match, he was not needed to help out. Despite being a goal down the Foxes appeared to be in control of the game, which meant Maddison was only required to make a single interception.
But at the other end of the field, Maddison contributed more than his fair share, though his attempts to secure an advantage heading into the second leg were in vain. In wide areas, the England international attempted five times the number of crosses of any other Leicester City player, 15, a third of which reached a fellow Foxes player. Maddison’s five accurate crosses were more than every other player on the pitch combined. Still, without much of an aerial presence, neither Jamie Vardy nor substitute Iheanacho were able to convert any of them.
At any range, Maddison’s passing was immaculate all evening, with only goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel having successfully found more teammates with long passes. In total the English playmaker kept a stratospherically high 95.4 per cent pass accuracy from his 65 passes, scarcely putting a foot wrong and challenging the England manager to think about how he will deploy his 2020 European Championships midfield. Furthermore, the 23-year-old made a game-high four key passes to send teammates through on goal, but it was not Maddison’s pass that led to the equaliser.
It wasn’t for want of trying himself that the Englishman didn’t put his side in the ascendency. After making three dribbles around opponents, Maddison fired off a colossal eight shots, and no Leicester City player had more efforts on target than the Englishman’s two.
Despite the scoreline, which flattered a resilient Aston Villa, Maddison made sure Leicester City remain in the tie heading into the second leg. Moreover, he gave the England boss reasons to keep him in the squad, despite others such as Jack Grealish hot on Maddison’s heels.
