Leicester City 3 Crystal Palace 0 – Eagles’ Euro hopes take a battering

BY SAM SMITH

Crystal Palace were the architects of their own downfall as they succumbed to a 3-0 defeat at Leicester City.

After a goalless first half, Kelechi Iheanacho tapped home early in the second period following an error by Vicente Guaita.

Mamadou Sakho’s slip then allowed Jamie Vardy to net a second as the game ticked into the final 10 minutes.
Vardy raced through on goal to dink a third over Guaita in injury time.

This was a third defeat in succession for Roy Hodgson’s side, who, although all but mathematically safe, find themselves slipping down the table having previously had an outside chance of European qualification before the return of football last month.

James Justin struck the crossbar with a swerving effort for the hosts inside the opening 15 minutes. Sakho then made an important interception to prevent Jamie Vardy from finding Iheanacho, who surely would have scored from six yards.

Just as they did against Burnley last Monday, Palace struggled to find any rhythm. Much of their play was disjointed and there was little width – Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha were narrow behind the returning Christian Benteke.

Luka Milivojevic had a free-kick whistle just wide of the post but that was as close as the Eagles came in the opening 45 minutes.
And Leicester finally capitalised on Palace’s inability to create chances when they led inside five minutes of the second half.

Guaita appeared to misjudge Youri Tielemans’ cross, the ball went under the arm of the Spaniard, and Kelechi Iheanacho tapped into the empty net.

Vardy crashed a shot into the side-netting as the Foxes hunted a second.

It took an hour for Gary Cahill to have his side’s first shot on target but he should have equalised with a free header. Instead, the defender’s effort was saved comfortably by Kasper Schmeichel.

Another error followed  Leicester’s second goal. The usually dependable Sakho dithered on the ball, attempted a Cruyff-turn on the edge of his box but slipped. Substitute Harvey Barnes capitalised and squared for Vardy to tap home.

The England striker capped off a one-sided performance in added time, keeping his composure to beat Guaita when put one-on-one with the goalkeeper.