Millwall 1-0 Leicester: Leicester Outfoxed At The Den
Credit: Rob Atherton / shutterstock.com
Millwall have catapulted themselves into the dizzy heights of third after an impressive victory while Leicester fall further adrift of the play-offs in their quest for an instant return to the top flight.
These two clubs are almost a perfect dichotomy of the two typical archetypes of sides you find in the top half of the Championship. On one hand you have the promotion veterans, they’ve spent years up in the Premier League and are used to yo-yoing between the divisions, they’ve thrown money at players to keep them up and been let down and are now facing the consequences of their reckless spending. Alternatively, you have the hopefuls doing things the right way. They sign young, high potential players from the lower divisions and abroad, developing them into superstars and moving them on to make room for the next crop of talent in the hope that one year the stars will align and they’ll find themselves reaching the big time.
Millwall aren’t one of the clubs blessed with bottomless resources or parachute payments to help them bolster their squad and make a push for a maiden promotion out of the Championship. However, through careful squad building and cleverly reinvesting funds from large player sales, they now find themselves in position to make a real push towards the Premier League. It’s been a long road for The Lions, which at many times has felt like it’s leading to nowhere. The club have been in the Championship since promotion from a brief stint in the third tier in the 2016/17 season. In the following years they have flirted with relegation just once and found themselves just outside the play-offs and hovering around mid-table every other season. The Championship’s nearly men have finished between 8th and 13th in every season bar one since promotion, finishing exactly 8th a remarkable four times and missing out on the play-offs again on the final day last season. While frustrating on occasion, their model of buy low and sell high while building and maintaining a competitive squad around their superstars is much more sustainable than throwing money that doesn’t exist at the team and risking falling short and being the next in a long line of Boltons, Derbys and Sheffield Wednesdays. After years of knocking on the door, it looks like this season may be the one they knock it down. Let’s just hope they don’t pass rivals West Ham on the way up, the Premier League deserves a Dockers Derby on Millwall’s first season in the division.
Leicester City have experienced it all in the last decade; promotions, relegations, an FA Cup win, Champions League football and the infamous odds-defying Premier League title. Due to their recent successes, you’d be forgiven for presuming they would walk the league with 100 points and 100 goals on their return to the Championship, but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for The Foxes. The club has been plagued with financial issues due to having a squad of players on inflated Premier League wages and being unable to sustain a regular spot in the division over the last few seasons. To combat this, Leicester had a fire sale in summer. They brought in around £50m in sales as well as letting high-earner’s contracts run out, namely club legend Jamie Vardy. Despite the clear out, the club haven’t been able to bring in anyone on a permanent basis as they are still trying to balance the books and make sure they don’t find themselves in a similar, or worse, situation again as soon as they’ve dug themselves out of this one. This isn’t to say they are playing the kids every week and are doing brilliantly to compete near the top end of the league, their squad is still mostly comprised of players signed in the Premier League era and those that helped them gain promotion last time out, and their players are valued at more than three times that of the Millwall squad that turned them over this weekend.
The visitors came into the game in dreadful form, winning only once in their previous seven outings. They’d also only lost once in this time, however, they’re just struggling to put games to bed when it matters and having to settle for disappointing points against sides they should be beating. Such is the tumultuous nature of the Championship, their run of draws has still kept them well in the race for a play-off place. Millwall had been in patchy form, but had built up a bit of a winning streak prior to this weekend. They had won three on the bounce, all against fellow promotion-chasers, and this form had seen them right back in the mix for a spot in next season’s Premier League.
The man of the hour was Millwall winger Femi Azeez. He fired off a few warning shots early doors, Belgian midfielder Casper de Norre latched onto a loose pass in the middle of the park and drove his team forwards before finding Azeez on the edge of the box. The wide man stormed into the box unopposed but his low shot was well saved by Leicester stopper Jakub Stolarczyk and nobody in navy blue was positioned to turn in the rebound.
Undeterred, de Norre and Azeez combined again just before halfway, and this time they wouldn’t be stopped. The Belgian received the ball in his own half, took a touch out of his feet and played a raking 50-yard ball over the top of the entire Leicester team towards a full-pelt Femi Azeez. The pass was perfectly weighted, arcing out of reach of any of the Leicester defence and dropping at the feet of the Millwall winger. Azeez held off the challenge of Luke Thomas expertly, brought the ball under his control and dinked the onrushing keeper before he could close the gap between them. Millwall went into the half in the lead and never looked back.
A 1-0 lead at the break was far from comfortable for the home supporters, however, as Millwall have lost three matches at The Den already this season despite being yet to lose away. As patchy as their home record has been, there was some comfort in the fact The Lions haven’t dropped a point from winning positions at all so far this campaign. Once they’ve got the lead, they tend to hold onto it.
Their afternoons could've been made a lot more comfortable had Mihailo Ivanovic converted his penalty just after half time. Once again Azeez was the heart of all things bright for Millwall, bursting into the box and being clumsily brought down by Harry Winks, leaving the referee with no choice but to point to the spot. The penalty was well saved, keeping the deficit at one goal and the heart rates of the Millwall faithful still rising.
The visitors had a couple of chances to level things up, substitute Julian Carranza sent an acrobatic overhead kick over the bar before Patson Daka was unable to direct his free header far enough into either corner to trouble the ‘keeper. Not Leicester’s day in the end as the home side ran out deserved winners in a close contest at The Den.
Millwall will, and should, take a lot of confidence from their recent run of results. Maximum points from West Brom, QPR, Stoke and Leicester is nothing to be sniffed at, and will be the kind of run they look back on and highlight if they are to end up promoted at the end of the season.
Their opponents need a turnaround, and quickly. They’re only two points from the top six but they’re in free-fall and in serious danger of losing a grip on the play-offs before it’s too late. The players are more than good enough to compete at the very top end of this division, so it won’t be long before attention begins to turn on Marti Cifuentes in the dugout. A lot of sides are performing above expectations at the top of the table as well as there being plenty of teams that haven’t played to their best that you’d expect to start picking up points soon, namely fellow relegated sides Ipswich and Southampton. If these teams kick on and the rest of the top half keep picking up points at the rate they are doing, Leicester could be left in the dust before they know what’s hit them. A long stint in the Championship is the last thing they need financially.
Millwall are fast becoming the feel-good story of the season. The question remains - is this sustainable? And will they still be up there come May?
Everyone likes them, they don’t care.