Two avoidable errors from Crystal Palace, alongside a late Jamie Vardy goal, gifted Leicester City the three points at the King Power Stadium.
Crystal Palace Hand Leicester City Three Points at the King Power Stadium
Poor First Half as Palace Withhold
Leicester’s James Justin was the first player to create an attempt at goal. The right-back, who progressed forward in tandem with the Foxes attack, found himself in free space at the edge of the area, and fired a shot at goal, but could only rattle the crossbar.
However, it was the Foxes’ only clear-cut chance of the half. While they did broach the Palace defence on several occasions, they were not clinical enough to take the lead before half-time.
The visitors, to their credit, were excellent defensively during the first half. Mamadou Sakho commanded the defence, showing a shadow of his former self, alongside Gary Cahill.
However, the same could not be said going forward. While their hosts created chances and just lacked a clinical edge, the same could not be said for Roy Hodgson’s side.
The main issue for the Eagles was that Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha were nullified. Neither looked like they could get going and were subsequently restricted by the Foxes.
Calamity Gives Leicester the Lead
A calamitous error by Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guiata gave the Foxes the lead.
After a neat interchange down the left-hand side, Youri Tielemans struck a low ball into the box that should have been dealt with by the visitors.
However, a break down in communication between Guiata and Sakho meant that Kelechi Iheanacho crept in behind and poked home to give Leicester the lead.
From there, Palace were chasing the Foxes.
Gary Cahill eventually registered the visitors first shot on target from a free header inside the box, but it was easily dealt with by Schmeichel.
The Foxes then doubled their lead in the 77th minute through yet another Palace mistake.
Looking to play the ball out quickly from a goal-kick, Guaita placed the ball down and shuffled the ball to Mamadou Sakho. The Frenchman, however, could not control the ball and was quickly intercepted by Harvey Barnes, who fed the ball into Jamie Vardy to tap home into the empty net.
Leicester then made it 3-0 late on. The Foxes broke away on the counter-attack, and Jamie Vardy’s pace meant he was in clear space within seconds, before chipping beyond the stranded Guiata.
The defeat means that Roy Hodgson’s side are now without in three games, while Leicester boosted their chances of qualifying for the Champions League.
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