Huddersfield Town 0-1 Leicester City: Stephy Mavididi goal gives Foxes victory

Stephy Mavididi celebrates his goal for LeicesterImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Stephy Mavididi joined Leicester City from Montpellier in the summer

Leicester continued their 100% start to the season with a narrow victory at winless Huddersfield.

Home goalkeeper Lee Nicholls saved Denis Praet's shot in a rare moment of attacking intent in a drab first half.

The Foxes took the lead in the 73rd minute when Stephy Mavididi made a yard of space for himself with clever footwork and then thumped a shot that flew by Nicholls at his near post.

Huddersfield pushed forward in search of a leveller and felt they should have had a penalty when Pat Jones went down under a challenge from Hamza Choudhury in the area, but the referee was unmoved.

The Terriers narrowly avoided relegation last season and have now opened the new campaign with three straight defeats in all competitions.

In contrast, Leicester, who were relegated from the Premier League in 2022-23, have won all three of their matches under new boss Enzo Maresca.

Michal Helik volleyed over from a free-kick and Foxes goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczy, making his league debut, made decent saves from Brahima Diarra and Josh Koroma before Mavididi came up with the game's decisive moment.

The former Arsenal and Juventus man joined the Foxes from Montpellier in the summer and his crisply-struck shot had too much power for Nicholls to give him his first goal in English football since January 2018.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall could have wrapped up the win in time added on, but he was denied by the Terriers keeper.

Leicester host winless Cardiff next Saturday, while Neil Warnock's men travel to Middlesbrough, who knocked them out of the EFL Cup in midweek, on the same day.

Huddersfield boss Neil Warnock:

"I enjoyed it. The last thing I wrote on the board was 'enjoy it' and I think we did today.

"We covered every blade of grass and couldn't give anything else; we're just disappointed to lose to a goal like that because I couldn't see them scoring.

"I thought their goalie made a couple of good saves in that first half and whenever we could, we tried to create things and we were on the front foot.

"I love having a go at them. They've got a good squad and two teams who can get promotion but thankfully we were only playing one!

"I think we've got to look after ourselves and we've shown today that we can go anywhere and have a really good game."

Leicester boss Enzo Maresca:

"One of the things that we need this year is to not get frustrated and to be patient, because the chance will arrive.

"We had at least five or six clear chances to score and, in the end, we completely deserved to win and have the three points.

"I said to the players that I need to know them and they need to know me.

"We started 40 days ago and I need to give them lots of information, but you can't give it all in 40 days.

"Even defensively, we've already improved a lot against a team that are well-organised and created chances from throw-ins, corners and long balls."

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