‘Football Punishes You’ – Maresca On Late Ipswich Draw

- Leicester City drew 1-1 with Ipswich Town at King Power Stadium on Monday
- Enzo Maresca provided his post-match verdict following the stalemate
- The Manager came away pleased with many aspects of the performance
- He felt his team weren’t clinical enough in the final third to kill the game off

City looked to have secured maximum points at King Power Stadium, courtesy of Leif Davis’ own goal half an hour into the contest, but Jeremy Sarmiento’s late equaliser sealed a share of the spoils for Kieran McKenna’s side.

Maresca, who was watching on from the stands due to a one-match touchline ban, felt his side did enough to claim victory, but the familiar feeling of conceding a late goal against Ipswich made for a frustrating conclusion to proceedings.

“It’s a big shame because we deserved to win,” City’s Manager commented. “The effort from the players has been unbelievable. But it’s football, it happened. We were 1-0 up and drew at the end.

“I have nothing to say about the performance because it was very good. We had many chances but you know in football, until you score the second goal, anything can happen at 1-0 up.

“When you create many and you miss, football punishes you. It was very similar [to the Boxing Day game] but we’ve also scored many goals at the end of games in our season.”

Stephy Mavididi’s quick one-two with Ricardo Pereira led to the opener, with the winger’s dangerous cross proving too difficult for Davis to clear. It was one of many opportunities that Maresca believes could have led to further goals.  

The 43-year-old explained: “Especially in the first half we had three or four more chances one-vs.-one with the ‘keeper, but the important thing is that we continue to create chances. We pressed very well.

“It was a good goal, but we had three or four more moments where we were in control of the ball and created chances. I think probably in the second half we had even more chances than in the first. We concede a goal at the end. It’s a shame for the players and the way they performed.”

Remaining seven points clear at the Sky Bet Championship summit, it is a sizeable gap to second place Ipswich, but with teams at the top waiting to pounce on any drop off from the Foxes, they must continue with the same intensity, the Italian warned.

“The Championship is very long, very difficult,” he added. “It’s a race, sometimes you are in front, sometimes you are behind. The most important thing is the way that we perform and it’s been very good, so we need to continue.

“I’m happy because in terms of the final target and confidence, we are going in the right direction. The Championship is still 18 games but we are in the right position, seven points from Ipswich, eight from Southampton.”