Maresca: That’s Football

- Leicester City fell to a 1-0 reverse against Middlesbrough at Riverside Stadium on Saturday
- This defeat was a second successive Sky Bet Championship loss for Enzo Maresca’s side
- The Manager gave his assessment of proceedings following full-time 
- Sam Greenwood’s stunning late free-kick proved to be the difference

Leicester City’s Manager reflected on a tale of missed opportunities for the Foxes, though admitted it took a moment of quality from Boro loanee Sam Greenwood to break the deadlock and ultimately earn the home side all three points.

The Italian said post-match: “At the end, Middlesbrough took the chance that they had and scored a fantastic goal, we missed ours. But it’s a shame to be honest. It’s frustrating because I think we deserved something more.

“We were in control of the game. It’s clear we created many situations where we didn’t score; we created many chances. But it is what it is, that’s football. It’s a moment where we created five or six clear chances and situations where we missed the right pass.”

The Foxes remain top of the Sky Bet Championship on goal difference following a second successive 1-0 defeat, having lost by the same scoreline at home to Leeds United last week.

Now with two weeks until City play again, facing Watford at King Power Stadium on Saturday 25 November, there’s plenty of time to fine tune tactical points with the players that will stay behind at LCFC Training Ground, as well as recovering physically from a testing period of games.

“For sure, we knew already that the season is very long,” the 43-year-old explained. “It has been a shame that we lost both of the last two games. We had 10 shots against Leeds. Sometimes you hit the target, sometimes not, but it’s important to create chances.

“Hopefully we’ll be lucky next game. Not because we lost two games in a row are we going to lose confidence, absolutely not. But now we have the international break so there’s space for us to recover some players in terms of injury and also in terms of energy and then we will start again.”