Man City Opinion: Vincent Kompany stole the show with his wonder-goal in the 1-0 victory over Leicester
Man City overcame a stubborn Leicester City at the Etihad in the Premier League on Monday night, as the Citizens leapfrogged Liverpool at the top of the standings with a 1-0 victory over the Foxes.
There was nothing much to choose between the two teams as they played out a nail-biting thriller at the Etihad which should have been enough to keep the fans at the edge of their seats throughout the entire ninety minutes.
The 1-0 scoreline, however, doesn’t say it all. Leicester City came into the game as the most in-form team outside the top-six, having won 6 of their last 9 games in the Premier League and high on confidence after demolishing Arsenal 3-0 last week.
The Foxes carried a bit of a psychological edge, having beaten City 2-1 in the reverse fixture back in December, but they adopted a cautious approach away from home against the reigning champions.
City managed to find a way through past an overly stubborn Burnley defence last week, thanks to Sergio Aguero’s goal of fine margins. However, Brendan Rodgers’ side came in with a near-perfect plan to frustrate the hosts and they did manage to do so for large chunks of the game.
Youngsters Wilfried Ndidi and Hamza Choudhury put up a lion-hearted display against a rampant City unit, while Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans proved their worth at the back with a dogged defensive performance.
Leicester managed to do what many teams have failed to do against City on their home turf, which was to play the ball out from the back comfortably.
While the hosts dictated most of the play, Leicester had their moments on the break. Vincent Kompany and David Silva both picked up bookings in the first half in their attempts to halt some brisk counter-attacking play from the Foxes.
It looked as if Sergio Aguero was once again going to be the hero for City but the Argentine’s header came back off the underside of the crossbar before Kasper Schmeichel showcased super-quick reflexes to parry the ball away to safety.
Referee Mike Dean confirmed that the ball hadn’t crossed the line and that was the closest that either team came to breaking the deadlock in the first half.
With the scores tied at 0-0, the tension was rising amongst the fans at the Etihad and each spell of Leicester possession was greeted with boos and whistles from City’s raucous home crowd.
The Foxes kept things tight and closed down every inch of space to deny City a way through, though Schmeichel was once again called into action to deny Aguero after Evans had let him clear through on goal with an awkward moment. Ilkay Gundogan fired his shot agonisingly wide a few moments after and the Foxes were doing everything that they could to hold on.
However, it was Man City’s charismatic leader Vincent Kompany, who came up with the match-defining moment, as the Belgian veteran wrote another page in the history of his illustrious Man City career with a remarkable strike from distance at the 70th-minute mark.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, Kompany unleashed a powerful shot from about 25 yards out to find the top corner of Schmeichel’s net. It was bull’s eye- an inch-perfect, world-class, impeccable, awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping strike from the Man City legend, comparable to that of a bullet fired from the nozzle of a shot-gun.
That eventually proved to be the difference between the two sides, though one would struggle to find the perfect set of adjectives to put that moment down on paper.
Kompany’s wonder goal sparked off wild celebrations at the Etihad and the Belgian ran towards the fans to celebrate, which arguably will go down as one of the highlights of his entire footballing career.
Even the staunchest of Man City fans would not have imagined in their wildest dreams that their club-legend would come up with a such a moment of inspiration in a game as crucial as this one, which might as well prove to be the defining moment in the title race.
Apart from the goal, the 32-year-old was an absolute rock at the back for Man City, registering a total of 84 passes at an accuracy rate of 90.5, including 8 successful long balls, 1 tackle, 3 clearances and 3 aerial duels. Quite clearly, he is still Man City’s best centre-back when he is fit and running.
To Read More Man City News, Click Here:- Latest Man City News
The best Liverpool can do now is bag all three points in their final game against Wolves, while hoping against hope that Brighton and Hove Albion pull off something magical to deny City a victory on the final day.
However, as things stand, Man City already have one hand on the Holy Grail, thanks to none other than Vincent Kompany.
