Crystal Palace and Leicester City both knew that this game served as a huge opportunity for both to edge themselves closer towards a place in the top six – even though there’s still a long way to go in this race. In the end, it was the Foxes who were able to maintain their spot in third place as they beat Hodgson’s men in their own backyard.
Forcing the issue
Maddison and Tielemans, despite not getting on the scoresheet, were at the heart of the attacking threat for this Leicester side from the first minute until the very last. The first half itself was pretty uneventful with Palace being unable to test the opposition, whereas Leicester made it clear that they were the team with a real incentive in this clash.
It took until 12 minutes into the second half for the deadlock to be broken, with Soyuncu’s header giving the visitors the advantage. The Foxes looked to be fairly in control of their own fortunes throughout, and with just two minutes of time remaining, Jamie Vardy made it two to seal the three points. He followed it up with an Eagles celebration in front of the home faithful, which didn’t exactly go down all too well.
Coming up with the goods
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers, as you can imagine, was incredibly pleased with his side’s performance.
“My senior players are first-class,” said Rodgers. “The spirit is very good and they understand we are trying to create something here we can sustain.
“People asked about European football at the beginning of the season and I said, ‘listen, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves’ because there are some incredible teams in this league.”
Crystal Palace will now travel to Chelsea in order to try and derail Frank Lampard’s momentum, before hosting runaway leaders Liverpool. Leicester have a tough test on their hands when they take on Arsenal at the King Power Stadium, before traveling down south to face Brighton & Hove Albion. By the end we get to the end of the season, it’ll be interesting to see where these two clubs are at.
Match Report
Crystal Palace: Guaita (6), van Aanholt (6.5), Cahill (6), Tomkins (6), Ward (6.5), Zaha (7), Schlupp (7), Milivojevic (6.5), Kouyate (6.5), McArthur (6), Ayew (6), McCarthy (6), Meyer (6), Benteke (6.5)
Leicester: Schmeichel (7), Pereira (7), Evans (7.5), Soyuncu (8.5), Chilwell (7), Ndidi (7.5), Perez (7), Tielemans (7), Maddison (8.5), Barnes (6.5), Vardy (7.5), Gray (6.5), Morgan (6), Praet (6.5)
Referee: Paul Tierney
Goals: Soyuncu, Vardy
Yellow Cards: Tomkins, Schlupp, Evans, Soyuncu
Red Cards: N/A
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