Leicester City vs Hull City. Sky Bet Championship.
The King Power StadiumAttendance31,318.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Leicester City and Hull City at the King Power Stadium as the Foxes saw their perfect start to the season end after a Liam Delap goal.
Saturday 2 September 2023 19:12, UK
Liam Delap's first-half strike brought an end to Leciester's 100 per cent start to the Sky Bet Championship season and earn Hull a 1-0 win at the King Power Stadium.
It was also Leicester's first defeat of the campaign in all competitions as Manchester City loanee Delap's goal was enough to give Hull their third league win of the campaign.
The closest Enzo Maresca's side came to an eqauliser was when second-half substitute Abdul Fatawu hit the post.
But it was a result that knocked the promotion favourites off the top of the Championship table, on a day when they had been hoping to stretch their winning run to seven games.
Leicester started strongly and captain Ricardo Pereira sent a shot from inside the area just wide of the upright.
But it was Hull who took the lead after 15 minutes when Delap cut in from the right and delivered a shot which took a deflection off Leicester defender Jannik Vestergaard to keep it out of goalkeeper Mads Hermansen's reach.
Leicester were frustrated for long spells as Kelechi Iheanacho saw a handball appeal turned down, and Harry Winks floated a shot just over the bar from 20 yards out.
In first half stoppage time Iheanacho saw a shot cleared off the line by Hull midfielder Regan Slate after a mix-up with goalkeeper Matt Ingram. But the Leicester striker had already been flagged offside.
Leicester manager Maresca made a triple substitution seven minutes into the second half, but Hull should have had a second goal soon after when Delap supplied Aaron Connolly in the 18-yard box, but he put his shot over the bar.
One of Maresca's substitutes then came close to putting Leicester level after 62 minutes. Winger Fatawu, who joined on loan from Sporting Lisbon on Thursday, curled a shot against the base of the post.
But Hull were still looking for a second goal and Hermansen had to parry a Cyrus Christie shot over the bar, before the Leicester goalkeeper saved at his near post from Scott Twine.
Maresca brought on Jamie Vardy with 22 minutes to go, but Leicester still struggled to find a way through the Hull defence.
Leicester's Enzo Maresca:
"We cannot think we're not going to lose a single game this season. We've played seven matches so far, and you'd said to me at the start that we're going to win six and lose one, I'd have accepted it.
"But we need to judge results, we probably deserved something more but it didn't happen. So we keep going, it's not a drama.
"We probably needed to be a bit more clinical when you shoot more than 20 times. But we started in the right way before they scored.
"Then we lost a little bit of control. In the second half, we were aggressive and in control. But sometimes this can happen. In the second half, there is nothing to say other then we needed to score."
Hull's Liam Rosenior:
"We came here with bravery, we were fearless and we wanted to play our way. We changed our press because Leicester are an outstanding team. But at the end, we were throwing our bodies on the line. We didn't want Leicester to
have any rhythm.
"For a centre half to be asked to play against Kelechi Iheanacho one for one on the back line, Alfie Jones was immense, I don't normally single out players, but his performance was everything I want from a centre half.
"He was magnificent and it was a joy to watch him."
