Norwich City 1-2 Leicester City: Vardy on target again for Foxes
The in-form striker got the opener before
Schlupp's second-half strike proved decisive
Leicester City returned to winning ways in the
Premier League with a hard-fought 2-1
victory away to Norwich City on Saturday.
Jamie Vardy's penalty opened the scoring at
Carrow Road for a Leicester team who made
three changes from the loss to Arsenal, with Riyad
Mahrez surprisingly left on the bench.
But Claudio Ranieri's side coped well without the
Algeria international as Jeffrey Schlupp fired home
a second just after the break to put the visitors in
control.
Substitute Dieumerci Mbokani halved the deficit
when he turned in Jonny Howson's cross before
Leonardo Ulloa's header was ruled out for a foul
on John Ruddy.
Norwich poured forward in search of an equaliser,
but Leicester - marshalled by the excellent Robert
Huth - held firm to secure their fourth win of the
campaign, while Alex Neil's side remain on nine
points.
Cameron Jerome shot just over the crossbar after
a clever move involving Wes Hoolahan and
Graham Dorrans as Norwich looked to attack the
changed visiting backline from the off.
Leicester quickly found their feet, though, and
Ruddy came to Norwich's rescue, denying Danny
Drinkwater from close range after Vardy had
failed to connect with a flick-on across goal.
But Ranieri's men grabbed the lead after 27
minutes, with Vardy finishing confidently from the
spot after he was tripped by Sebastien Bassong
when played through by N'Golo Kante, though
contact appeared to be minimal.
Schlupp was inches from poking
in Marc Albrighton's driven cross just two minutes
later and Shinji Okazaki dragged an effort just
wide at the end of the half, with Norwich struggling
to recapture their earlier intensity.
Leicester almost gifted the hosts an equaliser
straight from kick-off in the second half as
Christian Fuchs headed narrowly over his own
crossbar, but they doubled their advantage just a
minute later. Kante cut in from the left on a quick
break and his precision pass through to Schlupp
was hit low past Ruddy and into the bottom
corner.
Neil threw on Mbokani and the 29-year-old came
within inches of a goal as his powerful header was
kept out by the fingertips of Kasper Schmeichel
and the crossbar.
But the former Dynamo Kiev striker had better
luck in the 68th minute as he cleverly flicked
Howson's cross into the bottom corner with the
outside of his right boot.
Ulloa thought he had restored Leicester's two-
goal advantage just a minute after coming on, but
his header was disallowed after Huth was
adjudged to have pushed Ruddy following a
corner.
Norwich piled on the pressure and Schmeichel
saved superbly at the near post from Nathan
Redmond's fierce drive, but Leicester held on for
maximum points.
Comments