FULL TIME: Fleetwood Town 0-0 Leicester City
If ever a game needed a Jamie Vardy, it was that one. Ah well, he’ll be available for the replay.
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90 min +2: Fleetwood nearly win it at the death! Hunter turns sharply down the inside-right channel, and smacks low. His shot deflects off Benalouane and onto the bottom of the right-hand post! The ball bounces back onto Jakupovic, but instead of pinging into the net, the keeper is somehow able to gather!
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90 min: There will be two added minutes.
89 min: Hunter draws a foul from Chilwell out on the right. Another free kick, another chance to load the box. Hunter loops it towards the far post. Amartey chests it down and clears. A half-arsed shout for a penalty - did Amartey handle? - but nobody really puts their heart and soul into it, which tells the story.
88 min: A strange lack of urgency. Perhaps both sides have decided a replay wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
86 min: Hunter whips a decent free kick through the Leicester area, but there’s a little too much juice on the ball and it flies out of play to the left of goal. Nobody in red near it.
85 min: Cole goes bowling down the right wing and is cynically upended by King as he threatens to break into the area. This is a free kick in a very dangerous position.
83 min: But it’s Fleetwood who are looking the stronger in the latter stages! Coyle earns their ninth corner of the afternoon, down the right. Again Bolger wins the header, but having deceived Benalouane with a clever curling run to get free, he flashes a poor effort miles right of the target.
81 min: The ever-excellent Hunter charges down the right and earns a corner off Benalouane. Bolger meets the set piece, but his header isn’t great, squirting off to the left. Fleetwood try to recycle, but Cole can’t meet a left-wing cross and Leicester mop up easily enough.
80 min: Iheanacho comes on for Slimani. The last throw of the dice for Claude Puel, who does not want a replay.
77 min: Pond goes into a slide tackle to deny Okazaki space down the left. He plants his boot in the Leicester striker’s trouser arrangement. Ooyah, oof. Clumsy rather than intentional, and Okazaki doesn’t make a drama out of it.
76 min: Dragovic receives treatment after taking a kick on the sole of his boot from Dempsey. He’ll be OK to continue, but it’s a chance for everyone to catch their breath.
74 min: Hunter’s been impressive today, though. He bustles down the right and earns Fleetwood another corner. The home side load the box. The danger man Bolger, the big defender, goes up for a header but misses, and is penalised for shoving Slimani, who gives him a little whack in return with a sly flick of his heel. All good knockabout fun, with an old-school flavour.
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72 min: Swish, head, clank, swipe. An almost total lack of control, neither team able to keep hold of the ball. Poor BBC One.
69 min: Burns is replaced by McAleny.
67 min: Gray drives at Coyle down the left and leaves the Fleetwood full back for dust. As he nears the byline, he loops a delightful cross towards the far post, where Slimani is unable to guide home from a very tight angle. Side netting. Still, a lovely delivery by Gray, who is such a talent.
65 min: Leicester have regained a little equilibrium after rocking awhile back there. Okazaki earns a free kick off Schwabl, 30 yards from goal. Leicester commit plenty of men forward, but Albrighton’s delivery is appalling, straight down the middle into the hands of Neal, nowhere near a blue shirt.
63 min: Fleetwood have been very impressive since the restart. Forcing Leicester into that double substitution is testament to their endeavour. The Foxes will be thinking about last year’s tie with Millwall quite a lot right now.
61 min: The corner comes in. It’s half cleared. Schwabl creams a low shot straight at Jakupovic from the edge of the area. Fleetwood come at Leicester for a third time; they win yet another corner. Schwabl attacks the goal with his head this time, but he’s well off target.
59 min: Another corner for Fleetwood down the right. Bolger wins a header this time, but sends his effort well wide right from eight yards. That goes down as a decent chance. And Leicester are wobbling a little here, because the hosts come at them again quickly, and earn another corner on the right!
57 min: Leicester make a double change, hooking Barnes and Silva and throwing on Albrighton and Okazaki.
56 min: The corner isn’t anything to write home about.
55 min: Hunter nudges the ball past Amartey down the left and makes for the area. It’s a brilliant run, and he gets past Dragovic easily before whipping low towards the near post. Benalouane drops to bundle the ball out, to the left of the goal, for a corner. Fleetwood want a penalty for hand ball. They’re not getting it: the ball clanked off thigh and chest.
53 min: Leicester nearly open Fleetwood up on the quick break, James racing down the right and attempting to thread a diagonal pass through the middle for Barnes. But Pond steps up, reading the play perfectly, to intercept and put a stop to Leicester’s gallop.
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51 min: Burns busies himself down the right and earns a corner out of not very much. Bolger very nearly meets the set piece with his head, 12 yards out, but Benalouane gently eases him out of the way and the danger is cleared.
48 min: Silva charges down a ponderous Neal clearance, but the ball pings out for a goal kick. Excitement is at a premium right now.
47 min: A hectic and shapeless start to the half. As you were, then.
And we’re off again! Leicester get the ball rolling for the second half. No half-time changes have been made. “Nothing says ‘magic of the cup’ like a solitary seagull (40 min) making more noise than the crowd,” opines Phil Withall. Indeed. All part of the third round’s intoxicating brew. There are some trees making their presence felt at one corner of the stadium, through a gap in the stands. It’s a real shame there aren’t hundreds of kids in brown parkas sitting on the branches to get a free view of the match.
Half-time reading:
HALF TIME: Fleetwood Town 0-0 Leicester City
Not a classic. Yet.
45 min +1: The corner drops to Slimani, on the corner of the six-yard box. He hooks a shot goalwards, but it hits Bell, sitting on the floor. Slimani claims for a penalty, the ball having brushed the top of Bell’s arm, but there’s nothing in that: Bell was right next to Slimani, his arm was by his body, and he didn’t move it an inch.
45 min: There will be two minutes of added time. Barnes has a dig from distance and the ball deflects off Schwabl for a corner out on the right.
44 min: Leicester earn themselves another corner down the left, and do absolutely nothing with it. It’s been one of those halves.
42 min: Cole earns a free kick out on the left. The ball’s hoicked into the area and half cleared. Bolger has a dig from distance and nearly sends the ball into the gents, the door of which is behind Leicester’s goal, well to the right.
40 min: Hunter pumps the free kick into the Leicester box. Barnes clears. Not much going on. A seagull pierces the silence.
38 min: Silva goes into a 50-50 with Schwabl in the midfield and concedes a free kick. More worryingly for Leicester, he’s taken a proper whack to his shin and grimaces in pain. He’s not getting up yet.
36 min: Free kick for Leicester, 35 yards from the Fleetwood goal out on the left. A chance to load the box. Gray takes. Cole’s attempt to clear is woeful, his header dropping to Barnes, 12 yards out and level with the left-hand post. Barnes shanks an over-ambitious volley miles wide and high.
34 min: Some head tennis in the middle of the park. A couple of speculative long balls by both sides. A lull.
32 min: Gray, just inside the Fleetwood area on the left, takes down a looping ball with a lovely first touch. Stone dead. He drops a shoulder to reach the byline and attempts an audacious shot towards the bottom left. But Neal isn’t to be beaten at his near post. Corner, which is the end of that. But that’s Leicester’s first shot in anger.
30 min: Bell drifts in from the left wing, a determined and skillful run which gets him past a couple of blue shirts. He slips the ball to Cole on the edge of the Leicester box. Cole threatens to break into the area, but Benalouane slams the door shut. A lively attack, some fine defending.
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27 min: Leicester play it patiently, pinging the ball around, this way and that, before suddenly releasing the very promising Chilwell down the left. Chilwell’s burst of pace forces Coyle to slide the ball out, but Leicester don’t get the corner they should have. It’s just a throw, deep in Fleetwood territory, and the field position comes to nothing.
25 min: Leicester continue to dominate possession, but they’re beginning to look a tad more threatening now, pushing Fleetwood back into their final third. A measure of control is being asserted after a nondescript start.
23 min: Gray sticks to the touchline down the left, a wonderful old-school run down that earns Leicester a corner. The set piece is whipped into the mixer. King, six yards out, rises to meet the ball, but heads it wildly over the bar. That’s a second close-range chance for Leicester squandered.
20 min: Leicester have enjoyed 61% of possession so far. They haven’t done a great deal with it. Uwe Rosler will be very happy with his team’s start.
18 min: Dempsey cuts in from the right and lays off for Hunter, who makes himself space for another shot. He doesn’t connect properly, the ball bobbling through to Jakupovic. Hunter looks in the mood, though; Leicester have given him two chances to shoot already.
17 min: Pond’s first act is to bump into Slimani, who requires a foot rub and a drink of water as a result. It’s fair to say this match hasn’t quite got going yet. Plenty of time to summon the magic of the cup.
15 min: Eastham has taken a whack in a challenge with Slimani, and isn’t able to continue. He goes down, contemplates his ruined big day, then lifts himself up and wishes his replacement Pond all the best.
12 min: Now it’s Neal’s turn to shine in goal. He claims a Leicester corner, won by James down the left, with supreme confidence and to loud cheers.
10 min: That’s got Fleetwood’s dander up. Hunter and Burns go racing towards the Leicester box, the latter feeding the former, coming in from the left. Hunter takes a whack from 25 yards, but it’s easily dealt with by Jakupovic.
9 min: This turned the volume up, though! Dragovic plays a ridiculous blind backpass, and nearly beats his wandering keeper Jakupovic, the ball bouncing towards the bottom right. The keeper scrambles back and tips the ball around the post. The resulting corner comes to nothing.
8 min: Amartey and Gray try to get something moving down the right, but Fleetwood hold their shape and there’s nothing going on. All very quiet at the moment.
6 min: All a bit hectic at the moment, a shapeless muddle in the middle. It’s the FA Cup third round, there’s nothing wrong with that.
4 min: Gray curls the free kick to the far post, where the ball drops to Slimani. It’s half a chance, but from close range Slimani can only flash the ball wide left of the post. He should have done better.
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3 min: A nice bright start to this game. Fleetwood rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in. Schwabl puts himself about in the middle of the park, disrupting Leicester as King and Barnes try to work a move down the left. Then Glendon clatters James to the ground on the right. A free kick, and a chance for Leicester to load the box.
And we’re off! Fleetwood get the ball rolling, and almost immediately put the visitors under some pressure. A long ball down the left confuses Amartey, allowing Hunter to turn him and hook a cross into the area. Burns meets it with his head, eight yards out, but can’t get any power on the effort. Jakupovic claims easily enough.
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The teams are out! Eventually. Fleetwood leave Leicester waiting in the tunnel for a couple of minutes, some last-minute mind games perhaps. The home heroes are in their Arsenalesque red-and-white shirts, Leicester in their famous blue. This stadium is Arsenalesque too, of course - it’s called Highbury - though there are no grand art deco stylings at this one. It’s a pretty little place, though: a modern curved stand on one side, a social club on the other. A proper, old-fashioned, third-round feel.
Leicester manager Claude Puel speaks! “It is a disappointment for Jamie Vardy, he would like to play this game. But it is important to be careful about his injury. I think I pick a team that can win this game, knowing the fitness levels of my players after a tough Christmas period of five games in ten days. It was important to have a solution. But we want to win this game, it’s an important competition. Fleetwood are a good young team and would like to make a shock, so it is important for us to focus.”
Fleetwood boss Uwe Rösler speaks! “The distance between the Premier League and the lower leagues is getting bigger and bigger. The chances of a cup upset are lower. But having said that, it is still possible. We have a home game, so we will be fearless, on the front foot, attacking.”
Vardy might not be playing today, but he is in the house. There he is, signing autographs, posing for selfies, all that jazz.
Fleetwood make two changes to the team that went down to Bradford City on New Year’s Day. Out go midfielders Jack Sowerby and Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila; taking their place, Markus Schwabl and Wes Burns.
Meanwhile there’s to be no dream return for Jamie Vardy, who hasn’t regained his fitness and isn’t in the Leicester squad. Neither is Riyad Mahrez, whose omission will no doubt fuel rumours of a move to Chelsea or Liverpool or whoever else are said to be in for him, it’s quite hard to keep up. Having said that, his absence today could be totally innocent, as Leicester have rested nearly all of their usual first picks: of the XI sent out to beat Huddersfield on New Year’s Day, only Islam Slimani, Matty James and Daniel Amartey keep their places. Eldin Jakupovic, Adrien Silva and Harvey Barnes all start for for Leicester for the first time.
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The teams
Fleetwood Town: Neal, Coyle, Eastham, Bolger, Bell, Schwabl, Glendon, Dempsey, Burns, Cole, Hunter.
Subs: Jones, Pond, Hiwula, McAleny, Cairns, Biggins, Sowerby.
Leicester City: Jakupovic, Amartey, Dragovic, Benalouane, Chilwell, Barnes, King, James, Adrien Silva, Slimani, Gray.
Subs: Iheanacho, Albrighton, Hamer, Maguire, Okazaki, Ndidi, Choudhury.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire).
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Preamble
Welcome to Highbury Stadium, Fleetwood, Lancashire: Jamie Vardy’s alma mater. Here’s hoping Vardy recovers from his groin problem and plays this afternoon, for it’d be one of the great FA Cup third-round stories. Before inspiring Leicester City to the Championship and then the Premier League, Vardy supplied the goals that won the Conference for Fleetwood Town, propelling the club into the Football League for the first time in their history. A hero returns. It’d be a shame if he has to sit this out in his civvies.
Fleetwood are a League One fixture these days, a meteoric rise. But they’ve never faced a first-tier club in competitive football, so a match against the four-time FA Cup runners-up presents a new sort of test. They’ve lost their last three games at home, while Leicester are coming off the back of a clinical 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town. But in the cup there’s always hope: Leicester crashed out of the cup last season to another League One side in the shape of Millwall. Is another famous shock on the cards?
Kick off: 12.45pm GMT.
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