Madders’ praise for Super Mario free kick

The Leicester City and England midfielder hailed his former team mate’s sublime 20-yard slot that sealed a stoppage time 2-1 win against Wycombe on Saturday at Carrow Road.

Vrancic coolly stepped up to curl a left-footed effort over the Wanderers’ wall and into the top corner past the stranded Ryan Allsopp.

Former team mate Maddison, who departed for Leicester in 2018 for a then club record fee, congratulated the Bosnian on his social media account.

He tweeted: ‘Mario is one of the best free kick takers I’ve ever practised with. Doesn’t surprise me that they fly in the top corner quite regularly in big moments.

Former Norwich City player James Maddison loved Mario Vrancic's latest free kick masterclass against Wycombe Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images (Image: ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +447814 482222)

@NorwichCityFC #NCFC’

Vrancic was City’s match winner in the previous home win over Birmingham City, and head coach Daniel Farke admitted he remains a special talent.

“It is good to have such a lad in the yellow shirt,” said Farke. “I always trust him. You can always count on him. More or less his first situation, a crunch situation and in those moments Mario becomes even more concentrated it seems. He smelt this opportunity.

“He created the free kick because he knew exactly where he was on the pitch, and then he is so focused to step up and produce a world class finish into the top corner. I wasn’t in love with our game, I was in love with the result. Winning has to become a mentality, a habit, if you want to achieve big things.”

Maddison could be in action for the Foxes later on Sunday when they travel to Arsenal in the Premier League. The 23-year-old made 47 league appearances for the Canaries and was player-of-the-year in 2018.