Leicester reignited their bid for automatic promotion to the Premier League with a 3-1 win at home to Norwich on Monday.
Victory at the King Power Stadium meant the Foxes returned to the top of English football’s second-tier Championship, if merely for a few hours before promotion rivals Ipswich and Leeds are in action later in the day.
Goals from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Stephy Mavididi and Jamie Vardy enabled Leicester to complete a comeback after Gabriel Sara’s fourth goal in as many games gave Norwich the lead.
Leicester have topped the table for much of the season, but Monday’s success was just their third win in eight Championship games.
On Friday, Leicester City’s hopes of an immediate return to the Premier League suffered a fresh setback with a 1-0 loss away to Bristol City.
Only the top two clubs at the end of the regular season are guaranteed automatic promotion to the Premier League, with Leicester now a point ahead of second-placed Ipswich and two clear of Leeds, currently in third place.
“This was important, because we are in the final part of the season,” said Leicester manager Enzo Maresca.
“But then we started by conceding a goal, and 1-0 down from a corner, we needed to be mentally strong.
“But after that, the game was completely in our control, we dominated.”
He added: Probably in the last six games, we won one game and it was the one we didn’t deserve – Sunderland. We lost four games, and not one of them we deserved to lose.
“At the end, we are human beings – we have emotions so when we scored the last one with Jamie, the game was finished, so we were all happy and we enjoyed the moment.”
Defeat left Norwich in sixth position – still in contention to reach the post-season play-offs that will decide which club gets the third and final promotion spot.
It looked as if it might be a good day for the Canaries when Sara put them ahead from a corner in the 20th minute.
But Dewsbury-Hall’s first goal since January drew Leicester level 13 minutes later and from then on the Foxes started to get a grip on the game.
Mavididi made it 2-1 just after the hour mark with a fine curling shot into the far corner before former England striker Vardy, one of the stars of Leicester’s shock Premier League title triumph eight years ago, wrapped up the points in stoppage time with a powerful strike after Harry Winks’ initial effort was blocked.
AFP
