Leicester City boss Trevor Peake admitted the best team won as Manchester City took a huge step towards The FA Youth Cup Final by defeating his side 3-0 in the first leg of their Semi-Final on Wednesday.
Having fired six past Crewe Alexandra in previous round, the young Citizens were in a ruthless mood again as they shot down the Foxes at the Academy Stadium in another display of dazzling attacking football.
Manchester City 3-0 Leicester City
The FA Youth Cup
Semi-Final first leg
7pm, Wednesday 11 March 2015Academy Stadium, Manchester
Although they secured a commanding lead for the return leg on Wednesday 8 April, it could have been even more but for the heroics of Leicester goalkeeper Max Smith-Varnham, the undoubted man-of-the-match for the visitors.
Jason Wilcox's side, that included England youngsters Brandon Barker, Cameron Humphreys and Tosin Adarabioyo in their ranks, made home advantage count from the off, laying siege to the Foxes backline but their breakthrough did not arrive until just before the half-hour mark.
Aaron Nemane put the finishing touch to a fine move down the left, and have tasted blood, the hosts quickly went back for a second bite.
Just five minutes after taking the lead, their advantage was doubled in spectacular circumstances as Denzeil Boadu letting rip from range to leave Smith-Varnham with no chance.
The 'keeper recovered, and after the restart he denied Thierry Ambrose twice before frustrating Bersant Celina with a superb stop to keep the ravenous City attackers at bay.
And he was at it again as the game neared full time, diving to prevent Nemane from adding a third.
With only a two-goal deficit, Leicester, who included England youth internationals Darnell Johnson and Layton Ndukwu in their side, would still have been confident of reversing the scoreline back at King Power Stadium, but their task was made all the harder in the dying seconds.
Having been denied his brace on several occasions, Nemane finally got the rewards for his endeavours in additional time as he added a third to leave Trevor Peake's side with a huge task next month.
"All credit to Manchester City," Peake told LCFC.com afterwards. "They certainly caused us a lot more problems than other side have this season. They were worthy winners."
He added: "They've got some top-class individual players and they worked well as a team and an outfit."
