Aston Villa 0 Leicester City 0: The 94th minute, 39 hours later
After the 90 minutes were up and the fourth official signalled a further four were to be played, it was in the fourth of these minutes that the ball fell to a player in a claret and blue shirt exactly six yards from goal.
She instinctively prodded it and must have expected to be celebrating the only goal of what had been a pretty turgid game of football.
Janina Leitzig had other ideas.
Leitzig’s point-blank save with her outstretched right hand was the finest individual contribution to a frustrating afternoon for both sets of players and supporters.
Before this encounter, Aston Villa and Leicester City had both played three WSL games without winning. Neither really looked like winning this one until that glimmer of hope for Anna Patten before Leitzig’s intervention.
While Villa completed more passes (537 to 313) and attempted more shots (16 to 9), their two most dangerous moments didn’t result in a shot: in the 59th minute when Rachel Daly’s cross from the left flashed across the face of goal and in the 76th minute when Kenza Dali’s free kick could have been turned in by any of three Villa attackers but went beyond all of them.
The last time I wrote a report on one of Leicester City Women’s games I hit publish practically on the final whistle. This was partly because there was enough time in the dying embers of that 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace to wrap things up neatly, but also because there was plenty to talk about. This one’s taken 39 hours.
There were interesting aspects to the game though. Primarily, what would Leicester do without their injured star Jutta Rantala? Her usual berth on the right side of the attack was taken by full league debutant Shana Chossenotte, whose pace and directness is exciting even if her first start exposed a rawness that’s a reminder of her youth and unfamiliarity with the WSL.
Leicester were also without Noémie Mouchon who was named on the bench despite also being injured. So, with Lena Petermann still recovering from injury herself and Denny Draper away with England at the Under 17 World Cup, Amandine Miquel chose defensive midfielder Ruby Mace as her focal point up front.
While Mace pressed as effectively as ever, it didn’t work from an attacking perspective. The returning Yuka Momiki was reliably tidy but the first half was characterised by errors in possession from almost every player in blue. Chossenotte was the most wasteful in good positions although her pace did at least worry the Villa backline, most promisingly when she nearly reached a Momiki through ball but Villa keeper Sabrina D’Angelo did excellently to get there first.
At the other end, Leicester were solid and Villa struggled to create anything of note before half time. Kirsty Hanson was a familiar threat down the left but CJ Bott stood up to the task of keeping her quiet.
Bott was withdrawn at half time with Asmita Ale taking her place.
The surprise, given that Leicester had conceded in the 55th minute in both of the previous two games, was that the visitors actually carried the greater threat at the start of the second half.
Mace and Missy Goodwin both had shots blocked after good moves and this time the 55th minute goal almost went to the Foxes after Sophie Howard directed a header just wide from a deep Courtney Nevin cross.
That turned out to be Leicester’s best chance of the game though, as Villa took control for much of the remainder without managing to create much themselves. Leitzig produced a fine tip over from substitute Adriana Leon halfway through the second half but it was generally a decent defensive rearguard from Miquel’s side. That included an excellent full debut for young Belgian centre-back Sari Kees, signed from Leuven in the summer.
Miquel will probably be relieved even at this early stage of the season that Camila Saez’s own goal meant West Ham were pegged back by Everton. Otherwise, Leicester would be bottom.
Hopes were high before the season that this team could challenge for the top half - and they still could, of course. With just four games gone, fifth place is only three points away. But while a narrow defeat at home to Arsenal was both expected and slightly unfortunate, that defeat against Crystal Palace will linger in the memory until the first victory of the campaign.
In that sense, things seem similar to how they were for Steve Cooper before the men’s side beat Bournemouth. For Miquel, draws away at both Liverpool and Villa remain decent results. But with Everton at home followed by trips to Brighton and West Ham, that first win has to arrive soon.
It may be more likely in the first and third of those games. Because Brighton, sitting one point off the top after putting four goals past both Everton and Villa, are already looking like the team Leicester wanted to be this season. Another familiar feeling from the men’s game.
In the meantime, it’s back to the drawing board for a Leicester side that have still scored just one goal in the first four games of the season. The scorer was, of course, Rantala, on whom Leicester are so reliant. If she misses much more of the season Amandine Miquel will need a whole new plan of attack.
There’s already pressure building.
