sport news Manchester City 1-0 Leicester: Kompany nets stunning strike to send hosts top ...

Captain. Leader, Legend.

Look, that other gentleman has retired now, so the position is vacant. And who deserves it more than Vincent Kompany? He was meant to have been phased out long ago. He wasn’t Pep Guardiola’s type. Yet here he is, three years into the revolution, scoring the goal that leaves Manchester City in the box seat for arguably the greatest title showdown.

And what a goal, too. Not a centre-half’s goal, that is for certain. A spectacular. A goal that will be remembered and replayed decades from now. Kompany has scored plenty of headers from set-pieces, plenty of standard contributions from a player with his skill set. This was different. This was Paul Breitner 1974 World Cup different. This was a goal defenders dream of scoring. 

Kompany collected the ball around 35 yards from Leicester’s goal. It doesn’t matter who from. It was a square pass, one of the million City make as they move and shape the play around the opposition box. Kompany was expected to move it on, too. Leicester dropped off a little, let him have it. He’s not going to shoot from there, is he? And if he is, well good luck with that. We’ll take them all day.

So Kompany advanced maybe five yards and: pow. The ball left his right foot like a tracer missile, straight into Kasper Schmeichel’s top left-hand corner. It was Kompany’s first goal since April 7, 2018, and as the saying goes worth waiting for, Indeed if he never scores one again, nobody around these parts will mind. There was already an argument that Kompany might be among City’s greatest players from any era. This is the type of goal that gets statues cast. It was his Aguerooo moment – because, at that point, City looked to be faltering.

Leicester had already gone further into the match without conceding than any visitor to the Etihad this season. They were organised and determined and City were frustrated. They were forcing Leicester deeper and deeper in search of the goal that would hand the title advantage to Liverpool, but the tension in the stadium was growing. Ilkay Gundogan came close with a shot, Schmeichel made a fine save from Aguero – then Leicester broke and James Maddison could have scored, or at least slipped in Marc Albrighton who was in a superior position. Was this going to be the night one of the title duellists blinked? And then: it looks like we’ve got Kompany. There were 20 minutes remaining. It was far from comfortable but City held on. Win at Brighton and the title is theirs. That won’t be easy either. Nothing is, when it’s like this.

Liverpool players had talked about praying for a miracle after Saturday’s win over Newcastle, but it really isn’t a miraculous occurrence that Leicester compete with Manchester City. Leicester are a good team, restored under Brendan Rodgers after the disaffection of Claude Puel’s brief era, and they have long been capable of causing City problems. Add to that the tension of needing to win every game, and this was never going to be easy for City. 

From some distance out it looked like the toughest fixture either of the potential title winners had to get through – even more problematic than Manchester United away, given the form of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team.

So it proved. Manchester City were goalless at half-time at Old Trafford, and against Burnley, too, but this felt different. Leicester are dangerous on the counter attack, so there was always the hint of vulnerability, and while City were sluggish by their standards in those games and looked as if they might respond to a shake of the reins from Pep Guardiola come half-time, they played well and at a high tempo here – but couldn’t find a way through.