Boro and Leicester play out scoreless draw

Champions Leicester have been held to a 0-0 draw by Middlesbrough at the Riverside stadium in the Premier League.

A game drastically short on quality saw neither side dominate or create many clearcut chances, with a potential Boro penalty for a foul on Adama Traore by Leicester’s Robert Huth in the first half the main talking point.

That said, a point is valuable for both sides, as they look to keep their heads above the relegation battle, with Leicester sitting 14^th and Boro 16^th following the tie.

As expected for an early afternoon kick-off on 2 January, the tie was far from incendiary early on as both teams trotted into action rather than galloped and few skirmishes took place in the early battles. Christian Fuchs’ effort from distance the only real shot in anger, and even with that it sailed rather harmlessly wide of Brad Guzan’s post.

It took Boro a full 20 minutes to carve out anything meaningful in the red zone as Traore’s burst of speed brought him into the area where he pulled the ball back for Marten de Roon, only for the Dutchman to skew his effort high over the bar. Traore had also gone down in the box minutes earlier after a challenge by Huth, which looked a penalty, only for referee Robert Madley to let it go.

Efforts on target were rare at this point with Andy King firing a free-kick from the edge of the area straight into the arms of Guzan – the first time either keeper had been forced into a save and coming just before the half hour.

Alvaro Negredo found himself him a decent position for Boro, as he got around the back of the Foxes defence to latch onto a free-kick over the top from Gaston Ramirez, but he could only direct his left-footed effort into the side netting.

Traore’s pace had been one of the defining aspects of the tie thus far and he again found himself bursting past the Leicester defence with time and space to pick out one of two Boro shirts in the box, but his final ball was truly woeful as he crossed wide and left of goal, totally miscuing and evading his onrushing team-mates.

As the game ticked towards half-time it did begin to open up. De Roon had a strike blocked away by Foxes captain Wes Morgan, before Shinji Okazaki saw his run into the box halted by a sliding tackle from Fabio.

Boro finally got their first shot on target after the break as George Friend had a pop from distance after half-time, only to direct it straight at Kasper Schmeichel in nets. The Foxes were also reduced to long-distance efforts with King riffling an effort off his right boot but lining up his crosshairs off target.

Friend had begun to threaten for Boro, breaking up the park from left back with regularity, but two balls across the box couldn’t find the requisite accuracy to connect with a Boro head. At the third attempt Friend beat two defenders before accelerating into the box and having a go himself, but could only arc his effort wide of the right post.

Leonardo Ulloa should have given Leicester the lead when he connected with a Fuchs corner in the six-yards area but a free header went tamely into the waiting arms of Schmeichel.

With eight minutes remaining Ramirez should have got the breakthrough. A ball into the box wasn’t dealt with by Morgan, who could only head directly to Ramirez, but with space and time the striker pushed his effort wide of the right post.

It was a game that had quality – bit not much of it; a game that had chances – but not many of them; and a game that neither side probably deserved to win.

Photo: Getty/Nigel Roddis

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