Red Devils hunt down the Foxes
Written By: Robert Halter
Current Premier League Champions Leicester City contested the FA Community Shield against F.A. Cup holders, Manchester United at Wembley Stadium beginning of August in the curtain raiser to the 2016/17 season. In the tenth minute from an assist by Red Devils captain, Wayne Rooney, it created space for Anthony Martial, who ran at Riyad Mahrez and Danny Simpson, and then from a tight angle, directed his shot into the outside netting of the near left post. Two minutes later from a cross on the left flank by Luke Shaw and a deflection off Mahrez, a powerful header by Rooney was clasped upon by the Foxes catcher, Kasper Schmeichel. In the sixteenth minute, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, won the aerial battle with Leicester captain, Wes Morgan, his knock on found Marouane Fellaini, whose low drive was spilled by Schmeichel, before he collected the ball at the second time of asking. With nineteen minutes played, a surging run by Jamie Vardy, found his Leicester team mate, Shinji Okazaki, whose bending strike was deflected behind off Daley Blind, and from the resulting corner by Marc Albrighton, a well timed header from Okazaki, cannoned against the top right side of the crossbar. But just like he did at Wembley in last season’s F.A. Cup final, Jesse Lingard found the back of the net once again in the FA Community Shield, as after picking up a pass from Rooney, he drove through the Foxes defence, before firing the ball past Schmeichel into the right side of the goal to open the scoring in the thirty second minute. As the Foxes looked for a right to reply, an Albrighton corner was spun wide off the head of Andy King, in the thirty seventh minute. Before the second half resumed, the Foxes replaced Okazaki with Ahmed Musa and Albrighton with Demarai Gray. But in the fifty second minute, Leicester struck back as after failing to deal with a pass by Musa, an awful back pass from Fellaini, presented a gift for Vardy, who rounded David De Gea, before tucking the ball away from a difficult angle into an unguarded net. The second half subs combined five minutes later, with Musa’s pass across to Gray, who struck his effort straight at De Gea. The Red Devils soon changed Michael Carrick with Ander Herrera. With both Foxes players on yellow cards, Claudio Ranieri took off King for Nampalys Mendy and also replaced Danny Simpson with Luis Hernandez, while an enforced change was made by Jose Mourinho as Man U gave Juan Mata a run out for the injured Lingard. On sixty nine minutes, Martial combined with Fellaini, who set the ball up for Rooney to strike his shot directly towards Schmeichel. Further Red Devils changes took place with Marcos Rojo taking over from Shaw and Marcus Rashford on for Martial. In the seventy ninth minute, from a flicked header by Fellaini, the ball was scrambled by Rooney to Ibrahimovic, who was unable to find a connection before the danger was cleared away from the goal line by Danny Drinkwater. The Foxes then brought on Jeffrey Schlupp for Christian Fuchs. There was a costly miss by Leicester in the eighty second minute when Robert Huth won the aerial challenge with Fellaini, and as Musa stole a yard on Rojo, agonisingly his close range diving header looped over the crossbar. Two minutes later, Man U grabbed a later winner when from a telling cross on the right by Antonio Valencia, a well timed header by Ibrahimovic, clipped the inside of the right post before going in. Afterwards United took off Rooney for Morgan Schneiderlin and the Foxes at the end replaced Huth for Leonardo Ulloa before Mata a sub himself had the misfortune of being replaced by Mourninho for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who had a short run out as the Red Devils claimed the first piece of silverware of the new season.