Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
Now deep into his 11th year at Manchester City and with over 33 years spent on this earth, Vincent Kompany is still able to defy the odds when they are stacked against him.
With 70 minutes on the clock and Leicester City proving to be well-organised and almost a match for the defending league champions, the home team needed some magic.
They needed an inspirational captain to step up and take charge. Kompany didn’t disappoint. City’s number 4 released an unstoppable drive from all of 30 yards. It flew past Kasper Schmeichel’s outstretched arms and into the top corner.
Watching on before Kompany’s goal, it looked like Brendan Rodgers’ Foxes might just be able to do enough to take a point from the game, in turn denying Pep Guardiola’s side the win and tipping the balance in the Premier League title race back in favour of the Merseyside club.
Wilfred Ndidi was probably Leicester’s standout performer on the night. The energetic midfielder gave us some more evidence of potentially how big a career the 22-year-old could have ahead of him.
Rodgers’ side bore all the trademarks of the Northern Irishman’s footballing philosophy as they continuously played the ball out patiently from the back. When the home side advanced and enforced the first wave of their press, then Leicester’s defenders, most of the time, just knocked it over Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and co.
However, The Foxes were not able to get the in-form Jamie Vardy into any notable goalscoring positions throughout the 90 minutes.
Vardy always looked like his pace could cause Kompany and Aymeric Laporte problems on the break but none of Ndidi, James Maddison or Youri Tielemans was able to put the number 9 through on Ederson’s goal.
Kelechi Iheanacho missed what was Leicester’s best chance on goal when the ball broke to him in the 89th minute. The former Manchester City player blazed his effort wide and Guardiola’s men could breathe again.
Manchester City, for all their domination of possession, had only really tested Schmeichel with an excellent first-half header from Aguero.
His effort hit the crossbar and bounced down but Schmeichel made a brilliant reflex save to keep it out.
There was no stopping Kompany’s effort, though. It was the Manchester City captain’s first goal from outside the box since 2007.
Maybe it’s just not meant to be Liverpool’s year.
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