Norwich 0-2 Leicester: Foxes player ratings

After the Hull defeat, the visits to Southampton and Norwich – two clubs expected to be part of the promotion shake up in May – looked difficult. What do I know? After producing the performance of the season so far against Southampton, Leicester City also saw off the high flying Canaries on a wet and blustery night at Carrow Road.

In terms of team selection, rotation was the main theme. Of the 11 who started against the Saints, only six Foxes retained their places, Hamza Choudhury coming in for Ricardo Pereira – taking his captain’s armband – Wout Fees for James Justin, Cesare Casadei for  Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho for Jamie Vardy and Yunus Akgun for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

It was a tight affair in the first half with few clear-cut chances for either side. Southampton didn’t offer a great deal going forward but then neither did LCFC. There was no repeat of Southampton’s amateur defending though. Norwich got close to Leicester’s forward players, particularly Iheanacho who got some rough treatment from the defenders in yellow.

The game came to life at the end of the first half. A Faes header – caught under the crossbar by Angus Gunn – was the Foxes first attempt on target. A couple of minutes later, Stephy Mavididi went on one of his trademark mazy runs and was bundled over in the box. Iheanacho decisively knocked the ball into the roof of the net from the resulting spot kick.

The second half was very different. Norwich got up a head of steam and threatened Leicester’s goal incessantly. A succession of corners necessitated some last ditch defending, Faes and Jannik Vestergaard standing firm. From one cross, only a world class save – of Gordon Banks vintage – from Mads Hermansen preserved the Foxes lead. Almost immediately, he then blotted his copybook by clearing straight to Kenny McLean who, from 25 yards, came agonisingly close to equalising with a shot that cannoned off the crossbar.

Surviving the storm, Leicester began to reassert their control over the game and, with three  minutes of normal time left,  got a second after a slick move led to Dewsbury-Hall squaring the ball for McAteer to tap in. Game over. That’s four away games now, four wins, nine goals scored and only two conceded. Promotion form.