Leicester 2 – 1 Sheff Wed

Leicester came from behind against a resilient 10-man Sheffield Wednesday to win 2-1 in their opening Championship game.

Amid the strain of a chaotic summer at Sheffield Wednesday, fans protested against owner Dejphon Chansiri’s running of the club – with thousands waiting until five minutes after kick-off to take their seats in a sold-out away end.

Some still weren’t through the turnstiles when Nathaniel Chalobah gave them the lead.

But they got more and more stretched as the second half went on, with Jannik Vestergaard levelling for Leicester, before Barry Bannan’s two quickfire yellow cards left the Owls with 10 players.

Substitute Wout Faes then headed in late on to seal victory for Marti Cifuentes in his first game in charge at the King Power Stadium.

Spirit among the struggle for Sheffield Wednesday

Wednesday have had to endure a turbulent off-season and are under a number of Football League-imposed embargoes for various financial breaches, including the payment of wages to players and staff being delayed for the last three months.

Wednesday fans made their feelings known to Chansiri by delaying their entry to their seats and the away end was visibly empty as the players came onto the pitch at the King Power Stadium, with a banner that read: “SWFC for sale – enough is enough.”

The Owls had just 15 senior players on the books ahead of their season opener but produced a determined display against the Foxes.

After five minutes, the fans made their way into the ground and were greeted with applause from the Leicester fans.

After the game, Henrik Pedersen – taking charge for the first time after stepping up from Danny Rohl’s coaching staff – admitted to not knowing much about the future of the situation away from the pitch.

“I don’t know what the current situation is,” he told Sky Sports. “My focus in on being there for the boys right now. Let’s see what happens in the next few days and weeks.

“I’m proud of the performance of the boys today after what we’ve been through in the last few weeks.”

Leicester’s comeback double

Against the script, an already emotional away end erupted in the 26th minute. Yan Valery cut the ball back to Chalobah on the edge of the box and he sent a strike towards goal which deflected off Oliver Skipp and into the net.

The Foxes put Wednesday under the pump at the beginning of the second period as the visitors could not get out of their own half and the pressure paid.

El Khannouss’ low delivery from a free-kick evaded everyone inside the box and Vestergaard pounced to finish high into the net.

Valery and Chalobah both went off injured and Wednesday’s task was made harder when Bannan was given his marching orders for a second booking for a late challenge on Harry Winks.

Leicester finally found the winner three minutes from time. Charles was in inspired form and he denied a Patson Daka header from point blank range but there was nothing he could do from the resulting corner when El Khannouss whipped a corner onto the head of Faes, who guided home.

Cifuentes: We pushed until the end

Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes:

“Good teams are good in all areas and it’s important for us to be able to score goals in games like today, and have the capacity to score in different ways. I don’t care who it is as long as we score goals.

“It’s fair to say the second half was stronger than the first half. I’m not surprised because we knew this would be a tough game.

“It shows the mental reslience we’ve tried to push with the players that we need to push until the final seconds.”

Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from this season

From this season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.

And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.