Saturday, July 27, 2013

Leicester City 0-3 Monaco: Falcao on target in low-key win



The 60 million-euro summer signing from Atletico Madrid took his time to get going, but eventually found the back of the net

Radamel Falcao helped Monaco to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Leicester City in a preseason run out at the King Power Stadium.

The 27-year-old, who this week denied claims that he is in fact 29, took a while to get going at the sharp end of the Ligue 1 club's attack, but added to Layvin Kurzawa's goal before the break, and a late addition by Marcel Tisserand, to give Claudio Ranier's men the win.

The second half became something of

a non-event when Ranieri made 11 substitutions all in one go just after the hour mark, but the first half provided some good attacking intent from both sides.

Indeed, Matty James forced a good save from visiting goalkeeper Danijel Subastic in the second minute after arriving late into the box, before Lucas Ocampos fired one over at the other end.

On eight minutes, Joao Moutinho forced Kasper Schmeichel into a decent save with an effort from 20 yards out, allowing the visitors to take the lead from the resulting corner. Former Porto man Moutinho whipped his set-piece into the near post, where it was met by the head of Kurzawa.

Falcao, a 60 million euro signing from Atletico Madrid, had a disappointing opening period. First he headed a Moutinho free kick over the crossbar under pressure from Zak Whitbread after 23 minutes, and then saw his low shot blocked by Wes Morgan after the ball broke loose in the area.

The Colombian then forced Schmeichel to pull one of his father's trademark saves out of the bag, the Dane sprawling at the striker's feet to smother with any part of his anatomy necessary.

Monaco eventually grabbed a second. After getting involved in the build-up play, Falcao took up his position in the box, and when Andrea Raggi's low cross was dummied by Yannick Carrasco, the Colombian was left with a simple tap-in from six yards.

The hosts rang the changes at halftime, and one of those replacements, Anthony Knockaert, almost pulled one back when his shot deflected off Eric Abidal, only for the ball to drop just wide of the post.

It was the game that dropped off after that point, with Monaco happy to sharpen its one-touch passing ability. And if the tempo was not already slow, it certainly was when Ranieri substituted his entire team after 65 minutes.

The Foxes took advantage of the visitors' malaise, but Neil Danns' goalbound shot was blocked by the back of his teammate Knockaert. Almost as if to remind the fans there was a game on, Valere Germain had a low snap-shot saved by Schmeichel at the other end.

Jeff Schlupp spooned an effort into the crowd with eight minutes on the clock, and that looked to be that, until Tisserand was slipped in by Emmanuel Riviere on the left, allowing him to beat his man and hook a shot past a flailing Schmeichel to wrap things up. 

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