Leicester 2-0 Sheff Utd: Goals either half earn vital Foxes win

Leicester City swiftly recovered from Sunday’s defeat to Bournemouth with a terrific 2-0 win over Sheffield United at King Power Stadium.

Goals from Ayoze Perez and Demarai Gray handed Leicester City all three points that now means the club will be playing European football next season.

The victory puts Brendan Rodgers’ side on 63 points going into Sunday’s encounter against Tottenham Hotspur and, depending on Manchester United‘s result at Crystal Palace, puts them a step closer to securing Champions League football for the second time in four years.

Before the game had even begun, the pressure on City was enlargened when Luke Thomas was handed his debut for his hometown club with Ben Chilwell still unavailable. With Rodger setting his team out to match Chris Wilder’s, the Syston-born man played as a left wing-back.

Leicester started the brightest of the two sides, dominating possession early on. After nine minutes, Perez failed to make the most of a Thomas deep cross before Vardy was brilliantly denied by Dean Henderson a few moments later.

Another close-call for the Blades came ten minutes when Henderson was quick to deny Perez and Youri Tielemans in quick succession.

With the Foxes back three and wing-backs nullifying Sheffield United’s overlapping centre-backs, City finally took the lead. Thomas, who had created four chances in the opening half-hour, delivered a low, driven cross for Perez to tuck the ball into the bottom corner.

It was the Spanish attackers eight goal of the season, his first since the double against West Ham in January.

United made a triple substitution at half-time, including Lys Mousset, and restarted the contest with much more conviction and pressure on the Foxes. However, the first chance of the second-half fell to Jamie Vardy. After running onto a Tielemans pass, the Sheffield Wednesday-fan struck the post with his toe after losing control of his balance.

However, Wilder’s side came agonising close to equalising when Kasper Schmeichel reacted quickly to John Lundstram’s deflection after the midfielder flicked John Egan’s header towards goal in one of three successive corners for the visitors.

Harvey Barnes, who has scored seven times in all competitions, should have added the Foxes lead on two occasions, but both were brilliantly denied by Henderson, despite the efforts being straight at the goalkeeper.

After replacing Barnes on 76 minutes, Gray made sure of all three points when he fired the ball past Henderson after Vardy picked the on-rushing winger out in the United penalty area. The Birmingham-born’s goal came just 117 seconds after coming on and only Manchester City have had more goals scored by subs this season.

The three points mean Champions League qualification remains in Leicester’s hands, with Tottenham Hotspur up next on Sunday afternoon.