Leicester 0 Aston Villa 0: Villans end run of four straight defeats in bore draw Midlands derby at King Power
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JOSE MOURINHO won't lose sleep after studying his scouts' dossiers on Leicester City ahead of Thursday's Europa Conference League semi-final.
In fact there's every chance the Special One will nod off just watching edited clips of this messy Midlands affair.
James Maddison can deliver a mean free-kick and Jamie Vardy stretched his legs for 26 minutes to put himself into contention to play some part against Roma.
Otherwise, Brendan Rodgers' cunning plan to show Mourinho as few of his cards as possible worked a treat.
When fourth official Darren England held up his board to signal seven minutes of stoppage time you could actually hear audible groans from both sets of fans.
That's how poor the quality was for the preceding 90 minutes.
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When the dust settled Steven Gerrard's Villa ended their four-game losing streak and Leicester's players came through unscathed for their big Euro test.
The Villa boss had spent a fortnight stewing since their painful 4-0 thumping at home to Spurs.
Meanwhile, Rodgers was looking to get the balance of their team selection right ahead of Thursday's visit of Roma.
And giving some game time to Vardy who has missed six games with a knee injury was at least some consolation.
The lack of excitement during a tortuous first half was summed up when the 35-year-old striker received the biggest roar of the opening 45 minutes just for warming-up!
For the rest of the afternoon we witnessed 97 minutes of thud and blunder as these rivals pressed the life out of each other.
With two weeks to prepare Steven Gerrard had knocked his team into shape defensively.
The gaps which appeared against Spurs had been plugged.
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There was no doubt about his players' commitment as they harried and harassed Leicester all over the park.
It was dogged, stifling and up to Leicester to break it down and find a way through Villa's expertly drawn lines.
But with one eye on Thursday's Euro adventure Rodgers men kept plenty back in reserve.
So we suffered through a game littered with poor final passes and precious little creativity.
When Emi Martinez fumbled James Maddison's cross following an early corner the dial appeared to be stuck on the setting marked 'clumsy.'
Two minutes later Leon Bailey was similarly sloppy.
Ollie Watkins did well to give Wesley Fofana the slip and cross from the touchline.
But Bailey blazed his cutback over from 12 yards with the goal at his mercy.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall did well to wriggle round the back of Villa's defence but his deflected cross off Cash seemed to spook James Justin who forced the ball over from six yards.
Daka then got a toe to Justin's low cross at full stretch but couldn't make enough contact to prevent Martinez mopping up the ball down to his right.
Caglar Soyuncu took a nasty tumble when he leaped over Watkins to win a header and suffered a painful crash landing.
Then Fofana gave Ashley Young's old bones a rattle as this Midlands pair slogged it out.
Just on half-time Bailey's frustration showed when he blatantly bundled Maddison over to concede a dumb free kick in a dangerous position.
But like the rest of the fare Maddison failed to find the target as his swerving free kick from 25 yards flew a couple of feet wide.
Villa came out of the traps fastest after the break and Watkins slipped a left foot shot wide.
Leicester claimed a penalty when Patson Daka went down theatrically in the box but replays showed Ashley Young got a toe on the ball to poke it away from him.
Watkins smashed a shot off Schmeichel's chest before John McGinn coaxed a couple of daft bookings out of Papys Mendy and Dewsbury-Hall, who foiled him.
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To everyone's relief Vardy finally entered the fray with 19 minutes remaining as Daka made way for the Leicester legend.
But even the great man couldn't get a tune out of this sorry affair!