Leicester City and Napoli tied each other in their first group match in the Europa League on Thursday evening. The Foxes seemed to have ended up in a safe haven with a 2-0 lead, but thanks to a double by Victor Osimhen, Napoli took a point. Because Legia Warsaw simultaneously won 0-1 against Spartak Moscow, the Polish club takes the lead in Group C. In Group B, the group of PSV, AS Monaco won 1-0 against Sturm Graz. Due to the 2-2 draw between PSV and Real Sociedad, that was enough to take over the lead.
Leicester City v Napoli 2-2
Leicester played with five new names compared to Saturday’s league match against Manchester City (0-1 defeat). Jonny Evans, Boubakary Soumaré, Patson Daka, Ayoze Pérez and Kelechi Iheanacho made their entrance at the expense of Caglar Söyüncü, Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Marc Albrighton. Napoli made four changes after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Juventus. The injured Mário Rui was replaced by Kévin Malcuit. Furthermore, Amir Rrahmani, Piotr Zielinski and Hirving Lozano made their appearance instead of Kostas Manolas, Matteo Politano and Eljif Elmas.
One of the newcomers opened the scoring within ten minutes. Harvey Barnes steamed up the left flank and sent a measured cross to Pérez, who finished convincingly. Napoli put a lot of pressure in the remainder of the first half and could blame themselves for not being level. Zielinski, Kevin Malcuit, Osimhen and Lozano all missed good opportunities. After an hour, Daka thought he would score with a powerful, low shot, but the video referee noted that he was offside after Tielemans’ preparatory work. A few minutes later, Barnes made it 2-0, when he gave himself space for a shot into the right corner. Moments later, Osimhen brought the tension back when he cleverly took the ball into the penalty area and flipped it over goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. The same Osimhen completed the comeback three minutes before the end with a header: 2-2.
AS Monaco – Sturm Graz 1-0
Monaco had to do without the ailing Myron Boadu Wilson Isidor and Kevin Volland formed the front line. The home side had the upper hand in the first half, but failed to open the score. Gelson Martins was twice dangerous and Volland missed a good head chance. Two minutes before the break, Monaco was almost surprised in the counterattack, when Ivan Ljubic hit the top of the bar from about twenty meters away. Halfway through the first half, Monaco managed to open the score. Krépin Diatta reacted alertly to a cross from Aleksandr Golovin and headed the only goal of the game against the ropes.