Leicester City were held to a 2-2 draw by Napoli on matchday one in the UEFA Europa League group stage on Thursday evening.
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Napoli attacker Victor Osimhen helped the Serie A giants record a 2-2 draw against Premier League club Leicester City in the Europa League opener between the two teams. Osimhen scored a brace after Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers fielded a starting 11 that included five changes from the one deployed against Manchester City. Patson Daka and Boubakary Soumaré made full debuts, coming in alongside Jonny Evans, Ayoze Pérez and Kelechi Iheanacho. Kasper Schmeichel was in good form for Leicester, pulling off saves at regular intervals. Leicester were the first to score, as Harvey Barnes galloped down the left channel, looking up and picking out Ayoze Pérez, who was rushing into the 18-yard box on the far side. While the delivery was perfect, Perez further ensured a fine finish with a side-footed volley beyond David Ospina.
Lorenzo Insigne was unfortunate with a free-kick from 20 yards out, which flew over Schmeichel’s crossbar. Osimhen also sailed close from the edge of the area, but Kevin Malcuit couldn’t quite get onto the end of the cross. The Foxes almost made it 2-0 after 35 minutes, as Perez cut a loose pass from Ospina before feeding Kelechi Iheanacho who teed up Patson Daka. Kalidou Koulibaly was able to dive into a last-minute block. Barnes made it 2-0 soon after beating the offside trap, to send a low drive cannoning into the bottom corner.
However, Osimhen made his presence felt with a stunning opener, before getting his head onto Politano’s cross and nodding it into the far corner.
“It was an exciting game. We’re obviously disappointed we didn’t win the game. We were in a great position, but we were playing against a really experienced team and we just couldn’t see it through. We’ll learn from that. I said to the players afterwards, there was so many good things in the game, but we’ve got to keep the ball better because by the end, when you don’t have the ball so much and you’re chasing the game, you can tire that little bit,” said Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers as quoted by the club’s official website.
“We had some players getting their first 90 minutes of the season as well, and then obviously, their big striker (Victor Osimhen), who’s £70-odd-million, so you can see his quality, and he gets his two goals. Overall, if you can’t win it, even though we were in a good position, you make sure you don’t lose it and the point is a start for us. Now, we’ve got another nine or 10 to go,” he added.
“Patson is always a goal threat. [I’m] disappointed that he couldn’t get the goal, because it was a great finish, but both those players are young players learning at their level, and to how we work, and I’m sure they’ll prove to be very, very good players this season. I thought Bouba was excellent in the game. He had a little spell at the beginning of the second half. Looked a little leggy, but then he’d done one or two pieces of skill and came back into the game. He was good. That was his first 70 minutes, so I’m delighted with that,” he concluded.
