A First Meeting In 11 Years - Past Encounters With Coventry City
- Leicester City commence their 2023/24 Championship season on Sunday
- Enzo Maresca’s Foxes will play Coventry City at King Power Stadium
- This weekend’s fixture has a 12pm BST kick-off
- The match will be the first between the two sides in over 10 years
Enzo Maresca’s Leicester kick-start their Championship season on home soil this weekend, as Coventry arrive to face the Foxes on Filbert Way, in what will be the first clash between the two sides since 2012.
Little distance separates the two clubs, but it has been a long time since they have shared the same football pitch – over a decade in fact. The last meeting dates back 11 years ago, when goals from David Nugent and Jermaine Beckford saw City to a 2-0 win.
Prior to the Foxes’ history-making term in the Premier League, and Coventry’s demotion to League 2 and back again, there have been 14 fixtures against the Sky Blues over two stints in the Championship since the turn of the millennium.
City’s joint-biggest wins in that period both came at home, three years apart. First of all, when they won 3-0 in November of 2004 thanks to goals from Lilian Nalis, Danny Tiatto and Matt Heath. In February of 2007, the feat was matched again when a brace from Geoff Horsfield and a single effort from midfielder Andy Johnson confirmed victory.
Leicester’s last and only loss since 2001 came 15 years ago at Coventry Building Society Arena, previously named Ricoh Arena, but they were victorious when they last made the short journey west in 2011 – Lee Peltier scoring the only goal during the game.
The Foxes head into this weekend with an encouraging stat that they have never been beaten by their rivals at King Power Stadium. The first meeting between the two at our current home came in 2002 as Gerry Taggart and Brian Deane edged a 2-1 win.
This weekend’s opener will certainly house plenty of memories for the Foxes, most of them positive, as Maresca and his side look to begin their rebuild back to the top flight, but they must be wary of a club who were only denied entry to the Premier League on penalties last season.