Leicester City 2-1 Crystal Palace
Leicester City cemented their third place in the Premier League on Monday night thanks to a man-of-the-match performance from Kelechi Iheanacho.
The Nigerian hit man-made one goal and scored the second as the Foxes came from behind to earn a crucial three points, which lifts them seven points clear of fifth-placed West Ham and eight clear of Liverpool. With a long injury list the Eagles are short on numbers, but they had the Foxes on the run when Wilfried Zaha scored an early opener. Timothy Castagne equalised minutes into the second half before Iheanacho hit a screamer to win the game.
According to the pre-match Leicester City vs Crystal Palace betting odds, with the Foxes at 1.46, this was a great chance for Brendan Rodgers side to take a big stride towards Champions League football, which they did, but Roy Hodgson’s Palace made them work hard. The Eagles stay 13th but well clear of trouble.
Highlights of the game
Iheanacho has been in brilliant form in recent weeks, scoring 11 goals in eight games in all competitions; he’s built up a great understanding with Jamie Vardy and he almost supplied a goal for his strike partner in the third minute when he split the Eagles’ defence with a superb pass. Vardy rounded Vicente Guaita but before he could get his shot away the Palace keeper ushered the ball out to safety.
The Eagles have been vulnerable in the early stages of recent games, but they managed to catch the Foxes on the hop, against the run of play, to go ahead on 12 minutes. Christian Benteke robbed Youri Tielemans on the halfway line and fed Eberechi Eze who slid the ball through to Zaha, and he finished expertly for his tenth goal of the season.
After a bright start and then going behind, Leicester seemed shell-shocked and struggled to make inroads into the Palace penalty area, managing just one shot on target by the break. But it didn’t take the Foxes long to draw themselves level. Iheanacho turned assist maker, collecting a ball from Tielemans and rolling it back into the path of Castagne who smashed it into the top left corner.
Now was the time for Leicester to step on, but they almost got caught again when Jairo Riedewald burst through, only for Jonny Evans to make a superb saving tackle. The Foxes began to up the ante and Vardy made a weaving run into the penalty area before shooting from a narrow angle and Guaita saved.
While Leicester dominated possession Palace remained dangerous and Benteke had a clear sight of goal, but his header went straight into the arms of Kasper Schmeichel.
With 20 minutes remaining, Vardy had the ball in the net but the offside flag ruled his effort out. And then he almost rounded off a great passing move but his shot from a tight angle rolled wide. And then, with ten minutes left on the clock, Iheanacho stepped up.
He collected a long ball from Evans, cut inside Scott Dann and hit a thunderbolt into the roof of the net.
Key statistics
This was Iheanacho’s game, but hats off to his partner Jamie Vardy who made his 350th career appearance.
Zaha scored for the fourth successive time at the King Power Stadium. He loves playing against Leicester; his first senior goal came 11 years ago for Palace against the Foxes.
The win has nudged Leicester in front in the head to heads, winning 16 to the Eagles’ 15.
What’s next?
The two former Liverpool managers, Rodgers and Hodgson, have different priorities in the coming weeks. The Leicester boss has two major challenges to deal with, while Palace simply want to finish as high as they can.
Leicester have a chance to win silverware on May 15th when they come up against Chelsea in the FA Cup final. The Blues dumped Manchester City out in the semi-final to end the Sky Blues’ quadruple dream. And Chelsea’s victory over West Ham on Saturday meant that Thomas Tuchel’s side have taken possession of fourth place in the league and the Foxes will be keen to keep their noses ahead. They won’t want to rely on Premier League 2021 results elsewhere and Leicester have two very winnable games over the next couple of rounds, against Southampton and Newcastle United; and if they win both of those games that will also strengthen the Eagles’ chances of staying up in mid-table.
There’s plenty on offer for SBOTOP Premier League fans over the next two weeks as Hodgson’s boys play the teams at either end of the table, with a visit from champions-elect Manchester City next week, before they head to South Yorkshire to face already relegated Sheffield United.
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