A weakness in the defense? Leicester has appeared certain to make an immediate return to the Premier League since the beginning of the season, but they now need to demonstrate that this is not the beginning of a slump.
Thanks to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s first-half penalty, Enzo Maresca’s Championship leaders appeared to be coasting to another win, even with ten men. Then, in the final ten minutes, everything went apart as Callum O’Hare gave Coventry a remarkable victory by scoring twice, one on either side of Milan van Ewijk’s goal.
Leicester will point to the straight red card shown to Abdul Fatawu in first-half stoppage time but really, this was a mess of their own making. They lost their shape when O’Hare equalised and once the dam burst, they could not stem the flow.
The host team got off to a fast start and nearly took the lead when Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s angled shot was palmed against the bar. As Leicester was having trouble taking the lead, referee Darren England’s spray can exploded, causing a delay that was much-needed.
Cesare Casadei missed a chance to score after Dewsbury-Hall and Stephy Mavididi’s deft play, but the visitors have so many talented attackers that they will always create opportunities.
At the other end, Sakamoto linked beautifully with Van Ewijk but when the Dutchman squared for O’Hare, Coventry’s playmaker got in a tangle and fluffed his finish.
The home team was eventually forced to pay. Bobby Thomas slid in on Dewsbury-Hall first, but he also caught the Leicester midfielder on the follow-through, and England was given a penalty even though he had played the ball first. Leicester lead after Brad Collins dove to the left and Dewsbury-Hall rolled it to the right.
Then the turning point in stoppage time as Fatawu flew wildly at Jake Bidwell and was shown a straight red card. It should have signalled a period of Coventry dominance but apart from Matty Godden’s header from Van Ewijk’s cross, they could not pierce Leicester. The Foxes seemed to be cruising to victory with 10 men.
Yet 10 minutes from full-time everything changed. O’Hare found space in a crowded penalty area and threaded a precise effort into the bottom corner. And Coventry’s pressure told two minutes from time when Van Ewijk – outstanding all game – collected a poor clearance on the edge of the box and guided his volley beyond Mads Hermansen.
With former England midfielder Harry Winks regularly losing his cool with his team-mates, Casadei fired just over but this was not to be Leicester’s day and O’Hare put the seal on it with a close-range volley.
