Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored twice in 10 minutes to inspire a late comeback as Enzo Maresca began his reign as Leicester manager with a 2-1 victory over Coventry.
Leicester are aiming to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking under former Manchester City coach Maresca.
But they were made to work hard by a Coventry side who could have had more than the one goal they scored when skipper Kyle McFadzean’s close-range header gave them a deserved lead.
With Leicester struggling for a foothold in the game, midfielder Dewsbury-Hall equalised with a header before netting a spectacular winning goal.
Both sides named four debutants in the starting line ups following their summer transfer activity; but Coventry manager Mark Robins chose to leave new record signing Haji Wright, a USA international, on the bench after completing his £7.7million move on Friday. He would make an appearance with 19 minutes to go.
Maresca gave the Leicester captain’s armband to veteran striker Jamie Vardy.
The game was played in front of a sell-out crowd at the King Power Stadium, and had the atmosphere of a Premier League game.
Robins has rebuilt his squad with nine new signings following their Championship play-off final defeat to Luton last May but the Sky Blues showed Leicester they were not going to have it all their own way.
Kasey Palmer was a threat for Coventry and, after 26 minutes, he found space 20 yards from goal and produced a shot which drifted just over the crossbar.
Leicester came more into the game as the half drew on and former Coventry loanee Callum Doyle saw a header blocked at the near post from Stephy Mavididi’s corner.
Palmer continued to cause problems and it took an excellent interception from Harry Winks to stop him getting a shot in on goal.
Leicester youth product Kasey McAteer was put through by Ricardo Pereira before the break but he was denied by Coventry goalkeeper Ben Wilson.
Coventry should have scored straight after the break when Ellis Simms was put clear but took his shot first time and sliced wide.
Robins’ side went ahead after 47 minutes when Gustavo Hamer delivered a corner to the near post and McFadzean glanced home from close range.
Coventry then created a string of chances, with Leicester’s new goalkeeper Mads Hermansen twice saving from Matt Godden.
Leicester equalised after 77 minutes when substitute Dennis Praet delivered a cross into the Coventry area where Dewsbury-Hall was on hand to head past Wilson.
Coventry almost regained the lead when Hall broke clear and saw his shot deflected on to the crossbar.
But with three minutes left, Dewsbury-Hall scored the winner. He played a one-two with Mavididi before finding the net with a powerful left-foot drive.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Premier League MD11: Lucky winners and unlucky losers
The final international break of 2024 is here, and we can safely say the Premier League is starting to take shape.
Opta's supercomputer now has Liverpool, who are five points clear at the top following their win over Aston Villa on Saturday, as the favourites to go on and win the title.
Manchester City lost a fourth straight game in all competitions as they went down 2-1 at Brighton, while Chelsea and Arsenal are third and fourth respectively after sharing the points.
When assessing the underlying metrics, it looks like Sunday's draw at Stamford Bridge was a fair result, but that was not the case across the board this weekend.
Here, we pick out the lucky winners and unlucky losers from matchday 11.
Lucky winners: Manchester United
Manchester United are now under new management, with Ruben Amorim officially starting as head coach on Monday. But interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy ensured he went out with a high as the Red Devils beat Leicester City 3-0 on Sunday.
However, it is fair to say United were rather fortunate to net three times at Old Trafford, with the data suggesting they did not even create chances worthy of one goal, never mind three.
United's expected goals (xG) was 0.69, the third-lowest total in the league this weekend and behind Leicester's 0.77.
Bruno Fernandes scored one and set up another on his 250th appearance for the club, either side of Victor Kristiansen's own goal, but from 13 shots, United, who had only 17 touches in Leicester's box, really did not create much in the way of quality opportunities.
Indeed, their attacking quality instead told, with Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho finishing well. At the other end, Leicester failed to make their moments count, despite hitting the target with five of their six shots.
Spare a thought for Erik ten Hag, given when he was in charge, United's attack was underperforming. Now Amorim just needs to pick up where Van Nistelrooy left off...
Unlucky losers: Manchester City
Man City are suddenly the crisis club, having lost four straight games for the first time since August 2006. Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, has lost four games in a row in all competitions for the very first time in his managerial career.
Erling Haaland also lost a Premier League match in which he scored a goal for the very first time, having put City ahead before Joao Pedro and Matt O'Riley clinched the points for Brighton.
Brighton finished with 2.29 xG, so they did deserve to score at least twice. However, City can still consider themselves unfortunate, given their 2.22 xG was the third-highest of any team across the weekend.
Their post-shot expected goals on target (xGoT) also rose to 2.98, showing that Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was on fine form.
City also created five big chances, missing four of them, and hit the woodwork once. That being said, they conceded eight big chances, with Brighton letting them off for six of those, so it was not a good day at the office for Guardiola.
Unlucky losers: Bournemouth
If Man City were unfortunate, then the team to have created the highest xG (2.61) this past weekend – Bournemouth – can consider themselves hard done by.
Andoni Iraola claimed his team were worthy of the three points against Brentford, despite the Cherries losing 3-2, and the underlying metrics suggest the Spaniard was fair in his assessment.
Only Tottenham (35 in their loss against Ipswich Town) had more touches in the opponent's box than Bournemouth's 34 at the Gtech Community Stadium, but Iraola's side were made to pay for some dismal finishing.
Their xGoT dropped to 1.68, while Brentford's rose from 1.48 xG to 1.84 xGoT – essentially, the level of finishing from Brentford's players increased the likelihood they would score, while Bournemouth's finishing was below what would have been anticipated based on the quality of chances they had. That is further backed up by the fact the Cherries only got three of their 15 attempts on target.
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