October 20, (THEWILL) – Leicester City came back from a two-goal deficit to defeat Spartak Moscow 4-3 in a Europa League classic, with Patson Daka scoring all four goals.
Spartak’s Alexander Sobolev scored a fortuitous goal when his left-wing cross took a wicked deflection and caught Kasper Schmeichel out at his near post.
Caglar Soyuncu was robbed by former Nigerian international Victor Moses as the Foxes attempted to play out of defence, and the former Chelsea winger cut back into the box for Jordan Larsson to side-foot home.
Daka, despite getting a touch from the goalkeeper, reduced the deficit just a minute later, running onto Iheanacho’s ball over the top and slotting past Aleksandr Maksimenko.
Just three minutes after half-time, the Foxes levelled the scores when Iheanacho slid the ball across the face of goal for Daka to tap in. Leicester’s comeback was completed when Daka grabbed his hat-trick, racing onto Youri Tielemans’ perfectly weighted throughball and slotting between the legs of Maksimenko.
In the 78th minute, the 23-year-old centre-forward scored his and Leocester’s fourth goal, racing in behind as James Maddison played him into the box and firing a left-footed effort inside the near post.
With four minutes of normal time remaining, Sobolev arrived in the penalty area to prod Moses’ cut-back from the byline in and reduce the deficit, but Spartak were unable to find an equaliser before the final whistle.
The much-needed win put them back in contention for qualification from the group, which also includes Legia Warsaw and Napoli.
Daka became the first Leicester player to score a hat-trick in European competition, as well as the first Zambian player to do so for any club in a major European competition
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
