Huddersfield Town vs Leicester City. Sky Bet Championship.
The John Smith's StadiumAttendance19,541.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Huddersfield and Leicester at the John Smith's Stadium as a late Stephy Mavdid goal sealed all three points for the Foxes on Saturday.
Saturday 12 August 2023 18:53, UK
Leicester continued their winning start to the season with a 1-0 victory away at Huddersfield.
Enzo Maresca's side made it three wins from three in all competitions thanks to Stephy Mavididi's first Foxes goal.
The summer recruit from Montpellier has already begun to repay the reported £6.4million outlay as he grabbed what proved to be the winner midway through the second half.
After performing the great escape last season, Neil Warnock's outfit continued their slow start to the new campaign as they slipped to a third successive defeat.
In their first meeting since a 4-1 Leicester win in the Premier League back in April 2019, it was Huddersfield who started the brighter in this affair.
Youngster Brahima Diarra had two early opportunities to open the scoring, with his prodded strike narrowly wide of the target the closest.
Despite the Terriers' early dominance, it was the visitors who nearly snatched the advantage in somewhat freakish circumstances.
Defensive miscommunication enabled Kelechi Iheanacho space in the box with his effort deflecting off Matty Pearson and looping onto the roof of the net.
Maresca's visitors quickly assumed control of the match and again spurned a glorious opportunity to take the lead inside the half-hour mark.
A delightful Ricardo Pereira pass split the Town defence to send Dennis Praet through on goal, but the Belgium international was thwarted by Lee Nicholls.
The momentum pendulum again turned in Huddersfield's favour with Michal Helik - a scorer in the opening weekend defeat at Plymouth - having the chance of the half.
A quick free-kick resulted in a pinpoint Sorba Thomas delivery finding the onrushing defender, but Helik wildly blazed over from point-blank range before the interval.
The Terriers began the second period in similar fashion to the first with Danny Ward heading narrowly over before Diarra stung the palms of keeper Jakub Stolarczyk.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall then looked to add to his double versus Coventry last weekend, but his effort curled wide as Leicester regained control.
However, the Leicester youngster's blushes did not last long with teammate Mavididi breaking the deadlock with 17 minutes left.
The lively winger shifted the ball to an acute angle and unleashed a venomous strike which wriggled through the legs of Town keeper Nicholls.
The hosts launched a spirited fightback and should have levelled when an unmarked Pearson met a Thomas set-piece, but the defender headed straight at Stolarczyk.
Substitute Marc Albrighton should have doubled the Foxes' lead in stoppage time, but his low strike was pawed clear by Nicholls.
The visitors ultimately held onto their slender advantage to continue their impressive start to life under new boss Maresca, with recent history suggesting this could be a successful season in their bid for an immediate return to the Premier League. In each of the last three seasons, Huddersfield's first home league opponent has gone on to lift the Championship title.
Huddersfield's Neil Warnock:
"I enjoyed it. The last thing I wrote on the board was 'enjoy it' and I think we did today. We covered every blade of grass and couldn't give anything else; we're just disappointed to lose to a goal like that because I couldn't see them scoring.
"I thought their goalie made a couple of good saves in that first half and whenever we could, we tried to create things and we were on the front foot. I love having a go at them. They've got a good squad and two teams who can get promotion but thankfully we were only playing one!
Leicester's Enzo Maresca:
"One of the things that we need this year is to not get frustrated and to be patient, because the chance will arrive. We had at least five or six clear chances to score and, in the end, we completely deserved to win and have the three points. I said to the players that I need to know them and they need to know me. We started 40 days ago and I need to give them lots of information, but you can't give it all in 40 days.
"Even defensively, we've already improved a lot against a team that are well-organised and created chances from throw-ins, corners and long balls. I'm very pleased with all the team and the effort that they did over the last week with three games and three wins."
