Leicester City 0-2 Manchester City: Erling Haaland ends goal drought as Pep Guardiola’s men earn first win in five against stubborn Foxes side

Two things here served notice of Manchester City’s troubles. Hearing their own young mascot tip Leicester to win at the start of the game was one of them. Seeing their goalkeeper Stefan Ortega booked for time wasting with 20 minutes left was the other.

So yes, this Pep Guardiola’s City as they headed into 2025. Uncertain, unsure and largely unrecognisable. But they have a win to sustain them after this tricky afternoon in the East Midlands and that is something at least.

The Premier League champions didn’t really deserve to prevail in this game. A draw would have been fair. Leicester arguably created the better chances and Jamie Vardy will certainly rue the simple one he missed midway through the second half with the score at 1-0. Six minutes after that, Erling Haaland headed in City’s decisive second goal.

But City did win and Haaland did score. Both those things will be more important to them than anything else. City’s recent run now stands at two wins in fourteen and Haaland’s at two goals in eight. It’s an improvement – if only a small one – and perhaps a platform on which a proper recovery can be built.

They will have to play better than this and Guardiola more than anyone will know it. City were clinical and that was a good sign but, equally, they had to be. Savinho gave them a first half lead and Haaland doubled it with 16 minutes left. 

In between, though, City lacked any kind of control in terms of pattern, territory or possession. Leicester created the better chances – they hit the post and had one cleared off the line – but simply didn’t take them.

City’s travelling fans were noisy and amusingly self-deprecating. ‘We are staying up’, they sang. Equally, they will know what they saw from a team that was at least more recognisable in terms of their line-up. There were fewer square pegs in round holes. Kevin de Bruyne was back in the team, too, and wore the captain’s armband.

In terms of their football, there were some early signs of improvement. The defending champions were more sure of themselves with the ball. There was a greater input from Phil Foden and that was long overdue. 

Haaland, meanwhile, looked once more like a striker who wanted to go and score a goal rather than one who was prepared to hang around and wait for it to happen.

The opposition should have been all they needed to encourage them. Leicester have been very poor recently, porous at the back and lacking a threat up front. Indeed, City could have been ahead in the seventh minute when a nice move involving Rico Lewis and De Bruyne provided Haaland with a chance. 

The Norwegian’s low shot looked destined for the bottom corner before Leicester goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk stuck out a foot to repel it.

City were on the front foot for much of the opening 20 minutes or so and, though it didn’t last, it’s exactly how they would have wished it to be. Leicester did look capable on transition though and that was a feeling that did endure. 

Captain Vardy was back in the team and he spent the opening 45 minutes on the shoulder of the City central defenders.

In the 10th minute the 37-year-old looked to be in business when he was played the middle where was brought down by City goalkeeper Ortega. Penalty? Red Card? Both looked likely until a linesman’s flag went up. Vardy had been called offside and the VAR cameras confirmed it.

Vardy had a couple of other chances, too. This is where opportunity lay for Leicester. There was a chance in the 19th minute after a mistake by City defender Jasko Gvardiol allowed James Justin to feed Vardy through. This time the City keeper forced Vardy wide and then saved his low shot from an angle.

That felt like a significant moment because soon after that Leicester were behind. De Bruyne fed Foden with a square pass from the right flank and when his low shot from 25 yards was parried by Stolarczyk, Savinho was on hand to convert the rebound for his first City league goal.

Was is a mistake by Stolarczyk? They always say a keeper should parry the ball out to the side if they can’t hold it and that’s what he did. Having said that, it did look like a bit of a soft one.

The set back didn’t prevent Leicester from continuing to play their football. The Moroccan Bilal El Khannouss was their brightest player while Stephy Mavididi was lively too.

One cross from El Khannouss – a Belgian-born Moroccan – evaded everyone as it was whipped low from the right. Then, in the 39th minute, he stood a lovely ball up from the other side and when City couldn’t clear it, Facundo Buonanotte headed the ball against the post from seven yards.

A level game at half-time may have felt about right. City had not managed to kick on after their goal. Their best chance after Savinho’s goal had been created for himself by Haaland but a neat dribble on the edge of the penalty area was followed by a low shot that was pulled wide.

It didn’t get much better for City in the early stages of the second half either and by the time we reached the 70 minute mark Guardiola was making substitutions to try and get hold of the game while his goalkeeper was being heckled by the home crowd for time wasting. He was then booked.

Leicester had been the dominant team for the middle third of the game. City could not garner either possession or territory and it was only the home team’s wastefulness that prevented them securing an equaliser.

Buonanotte wasted a good chance in the 51st minute. He ran on to a lovely ball from El Khannouss and really should have shot first time across the goalkeeper. Instead Buonanotte cut back and lost his footing. He wanted a penalty but it wasn’t one.

Other chances were to follow before City scored their second. Manuel Akanji, the City central defender, had to clear a James Justin flick off the line in the 62nd minute and then Vardy ran down the right to cross dangerously after Bernardo Silva appeared to bottle a 50-50 challenge on the near touchline.

Vardy continued to be a pest but it was arguably his miss in the 68th minute that was pivotal. A dinked cross from the left by Mavididi seemed to have set Vardy up for a simple stooping header in to an open goal but instead he choose to poke at the ball with his toe on the volley and it disappeared over the bar.

The truth is that Leicester had fashioned sufficient chances but hadn’t taken any. Six minutes after that Vardy miss, they paid a heavy price.

Young substitute James McAtee pulled a trick to beat Victor Kristiansen on the far touchline and the ball was moved across field quickly through De Bruyne to Savinho. 

Quite why Haaland was then allowed to move unchecked into the penalty area was a bit of a mystery but when Savinho’s lovely cross arrived he was able to nod it back and across Stolarczyk and in to the corner.

City’s football had not been deserving of a two-goal lead. Nowhere near it. But they had been clinical and there is something to be said for that.