‘Very happy’ Leicester boss Maresca praises Ndidi, others, targets ‘one more win’

LEICESTER City manager Enzo Maresca has hailed his players, including goalscorer Wilfred Ndidi, for the 5-0 victory over Southampton at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday night.

Ghana forward Abdul Fatawu scored a hat-trick while Super Eagles midfielder Ndidi and former England striker Jamie Vardy added the other goals as Leicester City thrashed the Saints to move four points clear at the top of the Championship with two matches to go in the Foxes’ bid to make an immediate return to the English Premier League.

“I’m very happy,” Maresca told the Leicester City website. “Because of the performance, because of the result. The players once again gave everything and, at the end, I think we deserved to win the game.

“We scored five goals in different ways. I’ve said many times that the game can demand the way you have to play. Sometimes you have to be more direct, sometimes you have to play shorter, but overall, I think some of them were very nice.”

Fatawu also assisted Vardy to go with his three strikes and was named man of the match, but Maresca insisted he was impressed by the full team performance.

“His performance was fantastic,” the Italian said on Fatawu. “But I think all the team was very good. We would like to score goals always, but the opponent is always there. We took our chances tonight.

“I don’t think it was our best performance. I think we had some games in which we played better than tonight, but in the end most of the time people will judge the result and 5-0 but we analyse the complete performance.”

Leicester City are five points clear of third-placed Ipswich Town, with the top two sides to earn automatic promotion, and Maresca feels Premier League football is within reach.

“We need one more win to finish our job,” the Foxes manager noted. “Hopefully it can be the next one but now we prepare. We have two days off and we can recover energy and then we can prepare for the next game.

“Now it’s just a matter of trying to win one of the two games that we have and to get promoted. That is what we need in this moment.”