Leicester City 0 - 1 Stoke City

Leicester 0 - 1 Stoke

Krkic Bojan 63


Bojan Krkic, by some margin Stoke City’s player of the season thus far, enhanced his growing reputation with a match-winning performance against Leicester, the Premier League’s bottom club.

The 24-year-old Spaniard was comfortably the most accomplished player throughout a match of much endeavour but no great quality, and his winning goal, scored with a low, precise shot from just inside the penalty area shortly after the hour, gave the Potters a win their grittiness, allied with Bojan’s quality on the ball, meant they just about deserved.

Both managers made four changes for the game, in Leicester’s case slightly surprisingly after victory over Aston Villa in their previous game, less so in the case of Stoke after what manager Mark Hughes accepted was their most insipid performance of the season in defeat at Arsenal.

Leicester supporters hoping to see new £9m signing Andrej Kramaric continue his record of scoring on debut – a feat the 23-year-old Croatian has achieved for previous clubs Dinamo Zagreb, Lokomotiva Zagreb and HNK Rijeka, and for his country, against Malta in the 2012 European Championship qualifiers – had to be patient, with lack of recent training being cited as the reason for leaving him on the bench.

Stoke manager Mark Hughes was without Ryan Shawcross, previously ever-present, after the centre-half failed a late fitness test on a suspected groin strain. Marc Wilson returned to partner Philipp Wollscheid in central defence.

Both line-ups suggested solidity was the priority, an impression borne out by the opening quarter, during which almost all the action took place in a midfield which at times resembled a London underground platform during the rush hour.

Thankfully for all concerned, width, and the space obtained by the employment thereof, soon became a factor. Most productively, by Leicester down the left, where Jeffrey Schlupp’s pace was too much for the veteran Phil Bardsley to cope with. Unfortunately for the Foxes, Schlupp’s crossing was generally less impressive, though shortly before the half-hour his pull-back fell perfectly for Anthony Knockaert. The young French winger side-footed his effort firmly, but straight at Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.

A minute later David Nugent curled an effort cleverly over Begovic, but also over the bar. Stoke’s best moments were being created by Bojan, and to a lesser extent Victor Moses, and Wollscheid should have done much better than head tamely wide when allowed to meet a Moses corner all but unchallenged. At the other end Vardy’s back-heeled flick from another Schlupp pull-back almost surprised Begovic.

Stoke should have taken the lead two minutes into the second-half, when Moses’s ball inside Leicester left-back Paul Konchesky put Marko Arnautovic in the clear, albeit on the angle. From close range, the Austria international blasted his shot wastefully into the side-netting.

The chance presaged Stoke’s best spell of the match. The increasingly influential Steven N’Zonzi, taking advantage of Morgan’s poor clearing header, connected superbly with a volley that brought an outstanding save from Leicester goalkeeper Ben Hamer, but soon afterwards, the City defence were standing off as Bojan picked up Walters’s pass on the edge of the penalty area. The former Barcelona forward turned, and in the same movement shot low, firmly and left-footed beyond Hamer’s dive and inside the goalkeeper’s left-hand post.

Pearson sent on Kramaric, then Leo Ulloa and Tom Lawrence, but Stoke closed ranks to prevent the Foxes creating any further opportunities.

Guardian