Mark Hughes took some encouragement from the fact he's collected his first point as Southampton manager and ended the club's run of four consecutive league defeats, yet this is a time of the season when he desires successes instead of draws to enhance Saints' survival prospects. Against a Leicester side who have lost their way, Southampton played a curious lack of vision and urgency, summed up by Hughes's choice to substitute 1 striker with another at a point in the match when the travelling supporters were able to believe he would throw caution to the wind and chase the win which could have cranked up the pressure on Swansea, in 17th place. Strangely Southampton looked like they had been content to settle for the draw that leaves them four points adrift of safety matches remaining.
Claude Puel, who was sacked at the end of last season, has won just four of his last 17 league games and there were times here when it was hard to work out exactly what his players tried to do. Asked whether it was a point gained or two lost, Hughes replied: "We do not know yet. We will have to wait until the end of the season to find out whether that's an important point one way or another. I think given it is a positive. Performance-wise, I don't think we got anywhere near the amount that we showed against Arsenal and Chelsea, but we did not get any points from these games." There appeared to be no desire for Southampton to strike in the final stages, even with intent.
'ÄúIt's like for like because Shane Long had an enormous effort against Chelsea, he was obviously flagging when we took off him," Hughes said. "It was a little bit of a twist or stand scenario, to be perfectly honest. The value of taking something should not be underestimated. But we are going to get which we have where we are just going to need to throw everything at it. Maybe tonight was not the case for it." Southampton did have a few good chances either side of the period and fell to Long. The Republic of Ireland ended up doing neither and wasted the first after he was caught in two minds as to whether to take or pass. His chance ended the Leicester goalkeeper, with Ben Hamer, dashing out of his line to create as Long turned to spear a try at 32, an instinctive save.
agen judi bola
Kelechi Iheanacho put an opportunity broad but Leicester had to wait until the 69th minute, when Jamie Vardy volley from Marc Albrighton's pass was tipped by Alex McCarthy, due to their effort that was decent. It is five home league matches without a win for Leicester. "It's a shame but the operation was OK," Puel said. The performances of Napoli have faded over the last six weeks, yet for grinding out results, their capacity has suffered. Five of their nine goals are scored inside the last 10 minutes.
When Lorenzo Insigne flicked a Christian Maggio cross into Milik's route in the 91st minute, the storyline seemed set. Six meters out, the striker took aim at the corner: the choice when confronting a keeper as tall. The adolescent pushed the ball and dropped to his left. Occasionally even no goals could be amazing. Not for Napoli, obviously, not to the title race and not even for a Milan staff whose winless run may put their Europa League place in jeopardy and has cost them a shot at the Champions League.