Bruno Lage’s reign as Wolves head coach ended in defeat but not deflation as a performance full of guts and courage went unrewarded following an instinctive finish from Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy.
Adama Traore had the best of Wolves’ chances either side of the break, but couldn’t find the suitable finish on either occasion, while a series of other promising openings came and went for Lage’s men at the King Power Stadium.
The first-half was a case of one significant chance for both teams. Leicester took theirs and Wolves didn’t. For 40 minutes it’d be a competitive battle, with plenty of willingness from both teams – Wolves’ main threat coming from the pace of Traore and City posing questions through Vardy’s movement.
For Leicester, the striker had already got in behind once, only for the offside flag to save Wolves, so Vardy took an alternate route to giving his side the lead just before the break, nipping in ahead of Conor Coady to divert Ricardo Pereira’s cross to open the scoring.
That piece of intuition came moments after Wolves should have taken the lead. Joao Moutinho’s perfectly-weighted pass sent Traore through and the Spaniard was too quick for Daniel Amartey and Caglar Soyuncu, but the Spaniard’s effort rolled agonisingly wide of Kasper Schmeichel’s goal, leaving the door open for Vardy to put the Foxes ahead at the break.
Half-time | Leicester 1-0 Wolves
After the break, Wolves did everything in their power to get an equaliser, but it just wouldn’t come. Soon after the restart Joao Moutinho shot over and Francisco Trincao, who was more involved after the interval, had an effort turned over the bar.
Raul Jimenez headed wide, which Traore shot straight at Schmeichel, as Wolves cranked the pressure up further. Then, captain Coady thought he'd levelled with a composed finish, only for the offside flag to half his celebrations.
Like the first-half, Traore was involved throughout and had a near-post shot deflected behind, before two big chances at the death came and went for Maximilian Kilman, who had a shot blocked and header saved, as Wolves eventually ran out of time.
Full-time | Leicester 1-0 Wolves
Leicester | Schmeichel, Pereira, Soyuncu, Amartey, Thomas, Ndidi, Tielemans, Perez (Vestergaard 62), Maddison (Soumare 62), Barnes (Iheanacho 72), Vardy.
Unused subs | Ward, Albrighton, Choudhury, Dewsbury-Hall, Praet, Daka.
Wolves | Sa, Hoever, Kilman (Silva 90), Coady, Saiss, Marcal, Neves, Moutinho (Dendoncker 66), Trincao, Traore, Jimenez.
Unused subs | Ruddy, Ait-Nouri, Gibbs-White, Semedo, Cundle, Marques, Campbell.
