Maresca: One More Win Required
- Leicester City beat Southampton 5-0 on Filbert Way this Tuesday night
- The Sky Bet Championship leaders hold a four-point gap to second
- Manager Enzo Maresca assessed the five-star display from his side
- He credited hat-trick hero Abdul Fatawu and the whole squad
Abdul Fatawu’s hat-trick, alongside goals from Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy, saw the Foxes cruise past the Saints at King Power Stadium to move a step closer to automatic promotion out of the Sky Bet Championship.
“I’m very happy,” Maresca expressed at full-time. “Because of the performance, because of the result. The players once again gave everything and, at the end, I think we deserved to win the game.
“We scored five goals in different ways. I’ve said many times that the game can demand the way you have to play. Sometimes you have to be more direct, sometimes you have to play shorter, but overall, I think some of them were very nice.”
Fatawu assisted Vardy, alongside three strikes of his own, to double his league goal tally for the season, which now stands at six. While the standout display came from the winger, it was the full team performance which impressed the Foxes Manager.
“His performance was fantastic,” the Italian said on Fatawu. “But I think all the team was very good. We would like to score goals always, but the opponent is always there. We took our chances tonight.
“I don’t think it was our best performance. I think we had some games in which we played better than tonight, but in the end most of the time people will judge the result and 5-0 but we analyse the complete performance.”
Top of the table, now by four points, and opening up a five-point gap to third, Leicester could wrap up promotion at Preston North End on Monday, or even before if results go City’s way.
“We need one more win to finish our job,” the Manager confirmed. “Hopefully it can be the next one but now we prepare. We have two days off and we can recover energy and then we can prepare for the next game.
“Now it’s just a matter of trying to win one of the two games that we have and to get promoted. That is what we need in this moment.”