Enzo Maresca happy as Leicester reverse recent fortunes with win over Norwich

Posted Monday, April 01, 2024 by PA

Leicester manager Enzo Maresca admitted there was a sense of relief as his side completed a 3-1 victory over Norwich.

Maresca’s side had to come from a goal down before making sure of a result which put them back on top of the table before the evening fixtures.

Leicester gifted Norwich’s Gabriel Sara the opening goal from a corner, before responding with goals from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Stephy Mavididi and Jamie Vardy, a 77th-minute substitute.

Enzo Maresca happy as Leicester reverse recent fortunes with win over Norwich — Jamie Vardy’s goal capped Leicester’s win (Mike Egerton/PA)

Maresca’s relief came after a poor six-game run and he said: “It was especially for the moment, because for different reasons, we didn’t win so many games.

“So this was important, because we are in the final part of the season. But then we started by conceding a goal, and 1-0 down from a corner, we needed to be mentally strong.

“But after that, the game was completely in our control, we dominated.

“Probably in the last six games, we won one game and it was the one we didn’t deserve – Sunderland.

“We lost four games, and not one of them we deserved to lose.

“At the end, we are human beings – we have emotions so when we scored the last one with Jamie, the game was finished, so we were all happy and we enjoyed the moment.”

Maresca called for unity from the supporters in his programme notes, and he made it clear his style of football would not be changing, even though Leicester’s promotion credentials have been called into question.

The Italian coach added: “I think the fans were there, we tried to make them happy by winning the game. I can understand that, for them, it’s the only thing that matters

“But I know that sometimes they want us to attack, and be more direct, but it’s never going to happen while I’m here.”

Norwich manager David Wagner accepted that his side’s performance was not good enough as they chase a play-off place.

Wagner’s side’s form in their previous six games had only been bettered by Ipswich and Leeds.

But the German coach said: “We’re better than what we showed here. This is disappointing, but it can happen.

“I’ll quickly put this to bed because we’ll speak about the truth. I have so much trust and belief in the guys, I know they’ll have the biggest fire in their belly for the Ipswich game.

“The positives were that we scored a super set-piece goal, so credit to our set-piece department for that.

“But I felt we were well organised until their second goal. In ball possession though, we were below par. We’ve been better in recent weeks, but that doesn’t mean we should automatically have won the game.

“We not good enough to get some points out of this game. So we’ll work on it and analyse it.

“It was very clear that too many individuals did not do what they are capable of doing. But they are humans and for us to make sure that everybody is on the same page and our demands are higher than what we showed here.”