City Beaten By Augsburg In Pre-Season Test
A header from Keven Schlotterbeck just 10 minutes in separated the two sides in Leicester’s third open pre-season fixture of the summer. Combined with training camps in Évian-les-Bains and now Germany, those matches, plus behind-closed-doors training exercises, have allowed Steve Cooper's men to build fitness and work on tactical plans ahead of the new Premier League campaign. The Foxes will begin 2024/25 by entertaining Tottenham Hotspur at King Power Stadium on Monday 19 August (8pm kick-off) but first head to France next Saturday to tackle RC Lens (3pm kick-off).
In the Bavarian town of Kempten, new signing Bobby De Cordova-Reid was in the XI for City, alongside another attacking outlet in Abdul Fatawu, who turned his loan permanent this summer. Wilfred Ndidi, fresh from signing a new deal at the Club, was a starter too, with Victor Kristiansen, returning from a season’s loan at Bologna, in left-back from the start. Patson Daka, on the other hand, led the line as Jamie Vardy continues his recovery from injury. Throughout the game on Saturday, the Foxes' players and staff were wearing black armbands in remembrance of former Manager, Craig Shakespeare, who sadly passed away on Thursday.
It took 10 minutes for the first and only goal of the afternoon to be scored, with Schlotterbeck’s looping header from an Arne Maier corner evading Mads Hermansen. Fatawu was determined to do his all to get Leicester back on level terms, first testing Augsburg goalkeeper Nediljko Labrović from the edge of the box and later firing over from range. Daka was not able to get the desired contact onto a fizzing De Cordova-Reid cross 20 minutes in as well. Fatawu’s next sighter was City’s best chance that far in, getting real power on his 20-yard hit, although Labrović made a solid stop to parry it away. Hermansen wasn’t without work to do either, superbly tipping Samuel Essende’s low drive round the post. Former Huddersfield Town striker Steve Mounié headed over the resulting corner.
An intelligent one-two with De Cordova-Reid and a silky step-over from Stephy Mavididi freed the former Arsenal man to get a shot away, although Schlotterbeck raced back to get in the way with Labrović seemingly beaten. Into the second half and Mounié was still a danger, thrashing a close-range effort into Hermansen’s side netting. Only a last-ditch sliding challenge from Jannik Vestergaard halted Fredrik Jensen’s route to goal as well. With 15 minutes to play, there was a decent opening for substitute Kasey McAteer when Kristiansen’s corner was headed up in the area. McAteer had the time to get considerable power behind his header, but it was straight at Labrović. Conor Coady’s goalline clearance later on kept the deficit to 1-0 as both sides started to make a raft of changes at every opportunity. Twenty players in all benefited from another run-out, with the Foxes now set to return to the UK for a week of work on home soil. The clock continues to tick down until 2024/25.
All times BST.