Where Barcelona, Roma, Milan and Ajax failed, Stoke City appear to be succeeding in allowing the remarkable footballing talent that is Bojan Krkic to flourish. Whether it is a relative lack of pressure, or simply maturity on the part of a player once hailed as the next Lionel Messi, and who as a 17-year-old scored the winning goal in a Champions’ League quarter-final, who can say? But Stoke City’s manager, Mark Hughes, is not inclined to complain.
“He’s getting better every game,” said Hughes, after Bojan, now 24, scored his fourth goal in seven games to cap a match-winning performance against the Premier League’s bottom team.
“The Premier League is a strong league, and initially he was a little bit taken aback by that,” Hughes continued. “We had to wait a little bit, but now he’s enjoying being part of a good team. I think he’s thriving in the environment. In the last two or three years he possibly hasn’t felt too wanted, but that’s not the case with him here.”
Bojan’s quality on the ball stood out in a game high on endeavour, but low on goalmouth incident. As a result he was kicked from pillar to post, by Marcin Wasilewski in particular, but each time got up without fuss.
“He’s a game little chap, he’s got a great centre of gravity, really low, and teams will try and stop him, because he’s a creative talent, but he’s got great ability, he plays with his head up, and I’ve been really impressed by his personality,” said Hughes. “Given his career path, some players heads would be turned by that, but he’s got great humility and is a good professional.”
It is certainly hard to believe he cost Stoke just £800,000, and the manner in which he took his goal, finding a yard of space on the edge of the City penalty area, turning, and in the same movement, firing a firm, precise shot into the far corner of the goal, summed up his contribution.
Leicester huffed and puffed manfully, as they always do, but Anthony Knockaert could not take their best opportunity, shooting straight at Asmir Begovic in the Stoke goal, after being picked out by Jeffrey Schlupp’s cross from the left. At the other end it took a fine save from Ben Hamer to prevent Steven N’Zonzi’s powerful volley putting Stoke ahead shortly before Bojan’s clinical finish to win the game.
“We looked dangerous at times, but we didn’t really carve out enough meaningful chances in what was a tight game,” said the Leicester manager, Nigel Pearson. “Most games like that end up in a draw, but it was a bit of quality that won it for them in the end.”
