Leicester City vs Coventry City. Sky Bet Championship.
The King Power StadiumAttendance31,763.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Leicester and Coventry at the King Power Stadium as a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall double inspired a late turnaround victory for the Foxes
Sunday 6 August 2023 16:21, UK
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall struck twice as Leicester came from behind to beat Coventry 2-1 on their return to the Championship.
After nine years away from the second tier, it looked like the 2016 Premier League champions would be heading for defeat at the King Power after Kyle McFadzean had headed Coventry in front on 47 minutes.
But Dewsbury-Hall levelled with 13 minutes to go before scoring a late winner, meaning Enzo Maresca - Pep Guardiola's former assistant - secured a win in his first game in charge of the Foxes and in his first match as a manager.
Coventry can take plenty of heart from their performance, though. Their hopes remain high after going so close to promotion last season, only to lose on penalties in the play-off final in May.
Leicester dominated the first half but failed to really create too much, even though their front line of Jamie Vardy, Stephy Mavididi and Kasey McAteer threatened with their pace in behind, the latter of whom probably had the best chance as he stung the palms of Ben Wilson shortly before the break after racing in on goal.
But Coventry showed them what the Championship is all about when, just after half-time, Gustavo Hamer's inswinging corner was headed in at the near post by captain McFadzean.
Leicester battled back, with Maresca making changes, and one of his substitutions in Dennis Praet created the equaliser, with his perfect cross teeing up Dewsbury-Hall to nod in the equaliser with 13 minutes to go.
Coventry substitute and new signing Haji Wright went so close to winning it for his side as he ran through and saw his deflected strike hit the Leicester bar, before the Foxes went up the other end and won it. With Dewsbury-Hall proving to be the star of the show as he combined with Mavididi before finding the top corner with a masterful finish.
Leicester's Enzo Maresca:
"At the beginning when I came in, I checked the numbers of the players and I told him he has better quality to be able to score more and make more assists. The only way to do it is to arrive more often in the box. Kiernan scored here because he was there in the area. We are happy because he scored and we won and that's the most important thing.
"I told the players that Coventry was a team that almost won promotion in May. We needed to be mentally strong. So to be 1-0 down and then win the game, the guys showed a lot of great effort. We conceded a lot of goals from set pieces last season, I knew this before I came. We conceded again here and it was not easy to come back for us."
Coventry's Mark Robins:
"If we'd taken one more, we might have won by two or three. We're trying to be on the front foot and carrying a threat is something that's really important to us. We had chances to score, but such is life, we've not taken them.
"I think Dewsbury-Hall is going to be one of the best players at this level. Someone also told me Leicester had £100million worth of talent on the bench - which is nice. It's always disappointing to lose especially from a winning position but when you look at the quality of Leicester, there's a lot of Manchester City in the movements."
Both teams are back in action on Wednesday August 9 for the first round of the Carabao Cup. Leicester travel to the Pirelli Stadium to take on Burton at 8pm, live on Sky Sports Football, while Coventry take on AFC Wimbledon at Plough Lane at 7.45pm.
