English Premier League (EPL) champions Leicester City began the title defence with a surprising 1-2 defeat against newly promoted Hull City in the opening match here on Saturday.
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Riyad Mahrez’s second-half penalty cancelled out Adama Diomande’s acrobatic overhead kick for the hosts before Snodgrass slammed the ball home from inside the box.
The Foxes started the second half on fire as Gray earned a penalty within 15 seconds of the restart and Riyad Mahrez stepped up to convert easily.
Hull City put their abysmal pre-season to one side to stun Premier League champions Leicester City on the opening day.
Leicester City may suffer from the burden of being Premier League champions, Hull caretaker manager Mike Phelan believes.
Assem Allam and son Ehab have made no secret they want to sell, which is presumably why they are not putting any money into transfers and have a squad so thin that midfielder Jake Livermore was playing at centre half. Coming back after Leicester had drawn level right at the start of the second half showed the resilience of this team.
The worst thing about it is, Hull were deemed a definite relegation contender following a preseason of discontent that culminated in Steve Bruce leaving his post as manager of the side along with mixed messages regarding a potential takeover.
Etienne Capoue gave Watford the lead on nine minutes after Troy Deeney headed down a cross into his path and he swept the ball home.
That set the stage for a late flurry of City pressure which culminated in former Manchester United defender McNair heading a Jesus Navas cross into his own net from close-range.
France goalkeeper Lloris limped off with a hamstring injury in the 35th minute, with Michel Vorm replacing him.
“I said that it would be harder this year”.
But Lamela equalised in the 59th minute with a header from Kyle Walker’s cross. “I’m very pleased about our first performance against a very good team”.
“Hugo got injured and that had a big impact on us”. Hull were winning first balls and we weren’t picking up any second balls.
However, Phelan was still impressed by City, and admitted that they had come up against a Hull side performing at their peak. Schmeichel completely missed a throw out to Gray, starting a 2-on-1 break for Hull which finished with a wonderful volley from Robert Snodgrass, pretty much killing any confidence Leicester had.
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Everton and Spurs drew 1-1 at Goodison Park in Ronald Koeman’s first game in charge of the Toffees.
