The Times - UK (2022-04-08)

68 2GM Friday April 8 2022 | the times

SportFootball

Leicester City face a tricky second leg in
the Netherlands after their Europa
Conference League quarter-final first
leg against PSV Eindhoven ended in a
goalless draw. In a tight, tactical match,
neither team could find a decisive
advantage, with Leicester going closest
through Harvey Barnes, who struck the
crossbar shortly before half-time.
“It’ll be like a final next week,” Bren-
dan Rodgers, the Leicester manager,
said. “I thought we defended quite well.
With a little bit more finesse, precision
in our passing and combination play in
the final third, we might have been able
to open the scoring. At times, we
showed our lack of experience.”
PSV are only four points behind Ajax

Leicester City (4-3-3): K Schmeichel 6 — R Pereira

6 (J Justin 67min, 7) W Fofana 7, J Evans 7,

T Castagne 7 — J Maddison 6, Y Tielemans 6,

K Dewsbury-Hall 8 — M Albrighton 6 (P Daka 81),

K Iheanacho 5 (A Lookman 67, 6), H Barnes 7.

Booked Albrighton.

PSV Eindhoven (4-2-3-1): Y Mvogo 7 — M Júnior 7

(J Teze 90+2), A Ramalho 7, O Boscagli 8,

P Max 6 — I Sangaré 6, J Veerman 7 —

N Madueke 6 (Bruma 82), M Götze 6,

C Gakpo 6 (M van Ginkel 90+1) — E Zahavi 5

(R Doan 69 6).

Referee I Kruzliak (Slovakia).

When it was all done, after the contro-
versy, the fury and the lunacy, there
were cuddles and giggles between the
managers. David Moyes had calmed
down and tried his best not to talk him-
self into more trouble when reflecting
on the moment that reduced West
Ham United to ten men, sparked his
rage and earned him a booking.
Not only did West Ham feel that
Moussa Dembélé was running wide of
goal when his arm was pulled by Aaron
Cresswell, the left back who was then
dismissed, but they also felt there was a
foul on Jarrod Bowen at the start of the
move on the stroke of half-time. They
returned after the interval with a sense
of injustice, survived what Lyons threw
at them and took the lead through Bow-
en — which they might have extended
if Michail Antonio had found the confi-
dence to shoot when through on goal.
Moyes had other regrets and reasons
to feel angry. Tetê came on and wrig-
gled clear to create the equaliser for
Tanguy Ndombele, on loan from
Tottenham Hotspur, after Alphonse
Areola had pushed the cross back into
play. In Moyes’s book Tetê should not
have been eligible to play as Lyons were
only able to sign the winger on an
emergency loan from Shakhtar Don-
etsk because of the war in Ukraine; the
Premier League prevented their clubs
from signing other Ukraine-based
stars. Then, to compound Moyes’s frus-
tration, a fan ran onto the pitch, the
second time it had happened on the
night, and stopped a West Ham coun-
terattack as they tried to restore the
lead late on. “It was an opportunity to
score,” Moyes said.
Moyes had previously spoken of the
need not to be duped by the dark arts
and his side were well-goaded. Lyons
took every opportunity to go down eas-
ily, trying to disrupt the game and suck
out the intensity. West Ham grew infu-
riated and exasperated and eventually
were stung by the dismissal in first-half
stoppage time. Bowen lost the ball and
Houssem Aouar played a sublime pass

to put Dembélé clear, though Dembélé

would still have had a lot to do when

Cresswell intervened. It was a foul but

the red card incensed West Ham and

they will feel more aggrieved when they

see a replay of Dembélé winking at a

team-mate in the manner of Cristiano

Ronaldo at the 2006 World Cup when

he got Wayne Rooney sent off.

Moyes’s temperature rose and he

censured the fourth official and then

gave Felix Zwayer a strong piece of his

mind as the German referee walked off

at the break, earning the booking.

“I won’t talk about the referee but the

tackle on Bowen was a foul; it was the

same phase of play and I would have

expected VAR to intervene,” he said.

“We have moved on from soft free kicks

in this country and the game never got

the chance to flow. We had a poor but

resilient performance. It was more of a

backs-to-the-wall performance in the

second half but we are still in with a

good shout.”

Said Benrahma was sacrificed at the

interval. Pablo Fornals soon forced an

error from Jérôme Boateng and the ball

bobbled through to Bowen, who

finished calmly.

But Lyons had 72 per cent of the ball,

managing 23 shots but only four on tar-

get. They were technically superior and

began unpicking West Ham as they

sank back towards their penalty area,

generating overlaps on the left flank.

Lucas Paquetá and Aouar, once linked

with Arsenal, were the architects, per-

haps auditioning for a move to En-

gland. But the closest they came was

when Emerson released Paquetá to-

wards the byline and Dembélé could

not adjust his body properly to flick

home the cross at the near post.

West Ham went for a more direct

approach and their pace unsettled the

backline. Declan Rice was immense

after the break. He found Antonio who

exchanged passes with Fornals before

he had a low drive blocked.

But West Ham could not find a

second and Areola’s mistake was com-

pounded by Ryan Fredericks directing

the ball to Ndombele to leave the tie

delicately poised for the second leg.

Moyes’s men will have much to do in

France next Thursday if they are to

reach their first European semi-final

since 1976.

West Ham United (4-2-3-1): A Areola 6 —

R Fredericks 6, C Dawson 7, K Zouma 7,

A Cresswell 6 — D Rice 7, T Soucek 7 — J Bowen 7,

P Fornals 8, S Benrahma 6 (B Johnson 46min, 6)

— M Antonio 7. Booked Antonio, David Moyes

(not on pitch), Bowen. Sent off Cresswell.

Lyons (4-2-3-1): A Lopes 6 — M Gusto 6, J Boateng

6 (K Toko-Ekambi 64, 6), C Lukeba 6, Emerson —

T Mendes 6 (J Denayer, 89), T Ndombele 7 —

R Faivre 6 (Tetê, 64), L Paquetà 8, H Aouar 7 —

M Dembélé 7.

Referee F Zwayer (Ger).

Quarter-final, first leg results

Europa League

E Frankfurt (0) 1 Barcelona (0) 1

Knauff 48 Torres 66

Sent off: L Tuta (Eintracht Frankfurt) 78

RB Leipzig (0) 1 Atalanta (1) 1

Zappacosta 58 (og) Muriel 17

Sporting Braga (1) 1 Rangers (0) 0

Ruiz 40

West Ham (0) 1 Lyons (0) 1

Bowen 52 Ndombele 66

Sent off: A Cresswell (West Ham) 45+3

Europa Conference League

Bodo/Glimt (0) 2 Roma (1) 1

Wembangomo 56

Vetlesen 89

Pellegrini 43

Feyenoord (1) 3 Slavia Prague (1) 3

Sinisterra 10

Senesi 74

Kokcu 86

Olayinka 41

Sor 67

Traore 90+5

Leicester (0) 0 PSV Eindhoven(0) 0

Marseilles (2) 2 PAOK Salonika(0) 1

Gerson 13

Payet 45

El Kaddouri 48

Sent off: Gerson (Marseilles) 90+4

Bowen opened the scoring for West Ham seven minutes into the second half but Ndombele quickly struck back for Lyons

Leicester went closest to

scoring through Barnes

Europa Conference League
Quarter-final, first leg
James Gheerbrant

Leicester stalemate leaves all to play for in Eindhoven

in the Dutch Eredivisie and they were

worthy opponents here, restricting

Leicester to few chances and posing

their own threat on the counter.

Leicester missed the balance provided

by Wilfred Ndidi or Nampalys Mendy

in midfield, although Kiernan Dews-

bury-Hall was once again outstand-

ing. Leicester had twice as many shots

as PSV, but none of the game’s 15 chan-

ces was clearer than the very first,

which went the way of Roger Schmidt’s

team.

With two minutes gone Joey Veer-

man dinked a lovely ball through a

hole in Leicester’s defence to Mario

Götze, who had timed his run

perfectly and had no one between

him and Kasper Schmeichel. It was

a golden opportunity, but his first

touch was slightly behind him and

the shot was poor, at a perfect

mid-height for Schmeichel to

swat away.

Leicester took a while to

settle into the game, but when they did,

some clever rotations on the left side

between Harvey Barnes, Dews-

bury-Hall and Timothy Castagne

began to cause problems for PSV.

One such move ended with

Dewsbury-Hall flashing a

dangerous ball across the

goal-face.

PSV then gifted Leices-

ter a huge chance. Dews-

bury-Hall stuck a foot in as

they overplayed in midfield

and the ricochet ran

straight to Kelechi Iheana-

cho, who had a clear run on

goal. But his dink over

Yvon Mvogo drifted wide

of the far post.

Dewsbury-Hall

was a menace in

midfield, nipping in

to steal the ball and

create transition opportunities. He

intercepted a lazy pass to set up a shot

for Iheanacho, but the attempt was

scuffed and easily gathered by Mvogo.

The winger Cody Gakpo then made a

crucial intervention to divert an

inswinging free kick off the toe of

Wesley Fofana, who was arriving

dangerously at the back post.

A lovely move, started by another

foraging run by Dewsbury-Hall, ended

with Barnes playing a sharp one-two

and crashing a shot off the bar.

Leicester survived a nervy moment

shortly after the interval when Gakpo

went down under the challenge of

Ricardo Pereira just inside the box.

Dewsbury-Hall was still looking

Leicester’s most dangerous player, and

only a brilliant sliding block by Olivier

Boscagli prevented him from pulling

the ball across the six-yard box.

Iheanacho cracked an opportunistic

effort wide from 25 yards, before

Rodgers replaced him and Pereira with

Ademola Lookman and James Justin.

Barnes continued to cause problems on

the left and only some brilliant defend-

ing by André Ramalho halted him

when it looked like he was going to jink

his way through PSV’s back line.

PSV had a dangerous breakaway,

with Noni Madueke carrying the

ball against a disorganised Leicester

defence and then shifting it to the

substitute Ritsu Doan, but Doan’s pass

was just behind Götze and the home

side were reprieved.

Rodgers threw on Patson Daka, the

striker who had already scored six times

in Europe this season, for Marc Albrigh-

ton. With James Maddison playing on

the right of the midfield three, Leicester

had missed the goal threat that he

carries in a more advanced role, and he

began to push further forward in the

latter stages. However, despite a late

wave of pressure, Leicester couldn’t

create that final clear chance.

Leicester City

PSV Eindhoven

0

0

Europa League
Quarter-final, first leg
Gary Jacob

Dark arts and dismissal cost Moyes

West Ham United

Bowen 52

Lyons

Ndombele 66

1

1

HARRIET LANDER/COPA/GETTY IMAGES

Aaron Cresswell

was unlucky to be

sent off for his foul

on Moussa

Dembélé, who was

running away from

goal and had a bad touch on the

ball which meant he was losing

control of it. By the rules he was

not denied a clear goalscoring

opportunity and Felix Zwayer was

wrong to send Cresswell off.

Cresswell should

not have seen red

Peter Walton

Former Premier League referee

Cresswell was sent off for fouling

Dembélé, who winked, top, after

Zwayer had shown a red card