Foxes Take On Posh In Pre-Season Exercise
A 2-1 success for the Posh in unseasonably damp conditions allowed 22 players from each club to get 45 valuable minutes of football in the tank. Kwame Poku opened the scoring early on for Darren Ferguson’s visitors. A fine hit from Ricardo Pereira then restored parity before the break, but Joe Tomlinson’s deflected strike settled matters late on.
New signings Conor Coady and Harry Winks were in the first-half XI, which also included youngsters Jakub Stolarczyk and Wanya Marcal-Madivadua. The latter was alongside Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka in forward positions. Newly crowned UEFA U21 EURO 2023 champion Luke Thomas remains away, while Wout Faes has only just returned for pre-season. Harvey Barnes and Marc Albrighton were rested too, with goalkeepers Danny Ward and Alex Smithies set for introductions later in the summer.
The first whistle was met with the sort of sudden torrent which has lashed most of the country of late in the shadow of the domed King Power Centre. The Posh, though, opened the scoring inside four minutes. Poku, a Ghanian midfielder with one international cap to his name, fired a powerful drive inside Stolarczyk’s near post following tidy build-up play from the Sky Bet League 1 outfit. City looked to respond straight away, but Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s free-kick whistled over the crossbar in front of the Sports Turf Academy building.
Ephron Mason-Clark then forced Leicester’s young Polish ‘keeper Stolarczyk into a decent low stop to his right as Peterborough, in all pink, pushed for a second goal. Jonson Clarke-Harris, a Leicester-born striker among the visitors’ ranks, also sent an audacious chipped effort over.
Winks’ insightful forward ball freed Marcal-Madivadua behind the Posh backline midway through the 45, but the youngster had strayed offside. Seconds later, in the 39th minute, City were level. It was all down to Ricardo, too, as the Portuguese cut inside, 25 yards out. The former FC Porto man looked up and hit a low drive, with his left boot, into the bottom corner of Will Blackmore’s net.
He almost notched a second as well, but Leicester’s No.21 couldn’t get a header onto Victor Kristiansen’s cross-field ball into the box. That would turn out to be the last action of the first half, with a new XI taking the field for the second 45 minutes. Players coming in included Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi, Harry Souttar and Timothy Castagne. James Justin, on the other hand, was also in the side at right-back after recovering from an Achilles injury earlier this year.
Tawanda Maswanhise, a product of the Club’s Academy, went close twice in the second half, sending low hits wide of each post early on. Daniel Iversen, now in goal, also got down low to keep out Kabongo Tshimanga’s 30-yard strike. Kasey McAteer, another young Fox in pre-season action, scuffed high and wide shortly afterwards. On 83 minutes, Posh scored again, with Tomlinson’s effort deflecting off Hamza Choudhury and beyond Iversen’s grasp into the far corner. Iheanacho, meanwhile, was unfortunate to see a powerful free-kick cannon back off the woodwork late on.
Following an intense week of testing and training, the Foxes’ preparations have reached the next phase. They’ll step up again on Saturday, too, when Maresca’s men tackle Northampton Town at Sixfields Stadium in front of the travelling Blue Army (3pm BST kick-off).
First half LCFC XI: Stolarczyk, Coady, Winks, Vardy (c), Kristiansen, Daka, Ricardo, Dewsbury-Hall, Vestergaard, Praet, Marcal-Madivadua.
Second half LCFC XI: Iversen, Justin, Nelson, Souttar, Castagne, Ndidi (c), Choudhury, Soumaré, Iheanacho, McAteer, Maswanshise.