Leicester City vs West Bromwich Albion. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion at the King Power Stadium on Saturday | Jamie Vardy scores winning goal as Enzo Maresca's re-energised team return to the top of the league, having passed the 90-point mark
Saturday 20 April 2024 16:59, UK
Leicester recovered from successive defeats to pick up a nervy 2-1 win over West Brom and return to the Championship summit once again on Saturday afternoon.
The Foxes - who had lost to Millwall and Plymouth in their last two - were under the cosh in the first half and would have gone behind had it not been for a stunning goal-line block from Hamza Choudhury, but, instead, they took the lead through Wilfred Ndidi's close-range finish.
Jamie Vardy won and then missed a controversial penalty before the break, but redeemed himself with a towering header to double Leicester's lead shortly after they had somehow avoided conceding on four more occasions, in part thanks to another two incredible blocks from Choudhury.
Play-off chasing West Brom did pull one back when Jed Wallace tucked in after being picked out by Cedric Kipre, but they were unable to find the equaliser their efforts undoubtedly deserved.
Enzo Maresca's side pass the 90-point mark with victory, which moves them two points above Ipswich, who do not play again until next Saturday and four above Leeds, who do not play again until Monday.
The Baggies remain fifth, where they have been for five months.
Burdened by their recent, ill-timed dip in form, Leicester had to weather a storm to get back to where they wanted to be.
After a high tempo start, the Foxes were left indebted to Choudhury for his superb block to deny Mikey Johnston on the line. The Republic of Ireland international then had a shot saved by Mads Hermansen and hit a dipping effort inches over after a tricky run.
Just before the midway point of the first half, Leicester took the lead against the run of play. Vardy flicked on Wout Faes' ball and, with Alex Palmer unable to hold on after making the initial save, Ndidi was able to nip in and bundle home.
It turned the game. The volume of the crowd increased, as did the Foxes' confidence. And they could have had a second just before the break, when Vardy controversially won a penalty after a foul by Okay Yokuslu that looked to have taken place outside the box.
Nonetheless, West Brom will have felt justice was served as the veteran frontman struck his spot-kick off the base of the left-hand post.
That sense of justice will have waned early on in the second half. Choudhury first followed up his block with another to deny Yann M'Vila, before he recovered to do the same to Kyle Bartley on the follow-up.
Grady Diangana then prodded agonisingly wide after a ball from the left had hit the bar and was left with a red face soon after as he skewed wide after being picked out by Darnell Furlong, so it was like a sucker-punch when Vardy headed in a cross with 25 minutes to play.
Wallace did manage to halve the deficit with 14 minutes left to play, after a beautiful ball forward from Cedric Kipre, but the Baggies did not even have so much as a chance to equalise after that.
Leicester's Enzo Maresca:
"I've never seen three goal-line clearances from one player. He played as a goalkeeper at times. Hamza is probably the only guy whose contract we renewed this season. We made him one of the captains. With us, on the pitch and off the pitch, he has always been very good.
"It was a crazy game. We need still two wins, now we have to look at the next game.
"Every time you win, you see yourself closer and you celebrate. But it's not over, we have to finish the job. It was only 12 months ago that we were relegated, it's not easy to come back.
"I just said to Carlos Corberan that we have been lucky in this game. And he said to me: 'You have been lucky here, but in the last two games, you have been completely unlucky.'"
West Brom's Carlos Corberan:
"It's excellent! I love this pressure. I am preparing for this - I am ready to fight until the last minute of the last game. We're in a good position to fight for that, I'm proud of what we're doing.
"The play off is a step to promotion. There are amazing teams here, who have made a big financial investment, but we have two games to achieve the play offs. I don't care whether we're fifth or sixth. I want the most points we can achieve. That's all I'm thinking about.
"This was not a fair result, we did everything but put the ball in the net until late on.
"We created more chances than the best team in the division, and I'm proud of that. But I've never seen one player make three goal-line clearances before, that was hard to accept."
