Captain Morgan puts Foxes 7 clear
Print Edition
LEICESTER City captain Wes Morgan scored his first goal in almost a year as the English Premier League title-chaser edged Southampton 1-0 yesterday to establish a potentially decisive seven-point lead.
Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Saturday had given Claudio Ranieri’s men an opportunity to strengthen their grip on first place and they duly took it courtesy of Morgan’s 38th-minute header.
It was Leicester’s fifth 1-0 victory in six matches and left the east Midlands club needing 12 points from its final six games to claim the first top-flight title in its 132-year history.
“Everyone is expecting something more from us and we are in the cloud, but we have to keep concentrating,” said Leicester manager Ranieri.
“I don’t want to think about champions. I want to focus on the match. There is a chance for us to be champions this season, but we’ve to be professional.”
The Foxes were bottom of the table a year ago, but are now within sight of one of the most sensational underdog triumphs in world football history.
Meanwhile, Southampton manager Ronald Koeman, whose side remains seventh, was left to rue two penalty appeals for handball in each half that were turned away by referee Michael Oliver.
“This is a big match,” Koeman said. “It is about the Premier League title and our ambitions to play in Europe.
“I don’t say they don’t deserve the victory, that they don’t fight and have amazing spirit, but if it is a penalty and a red card, they don’t win.”
With chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha laying on free doughnuts and bottles of beer for home fans to mark his birthday and ‘Leicester City Champions 2016’ scarves for sale on the walk to the ground, the atmosphere could barely have been more festive at a sun-soaked King Power Stadium.
In a bid to counter Leicester’s two-pronged strike-force of Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki, Southampton deployed a back three and while the home side made the early running, the clearest opportunities of the first half fell to the visitors.
Their best chance saw Graziano Pelle free Sadio Mane, who rounded Kasper Schmeichel and shot, only for the ball to strike Danny Simpson’s right forearm as he came across to cover the vacant goal.
Saints defender Jose Fonte was saved the embarrassment of putting through his own goal by an athletic leap from Fraser Forster. The Southampton ‘keeper also saved from Simpson, who wasted a great opportunity to score his first goal for Leicester.
In the day’s late match, Manchester United, sixth on 50 points, was hosting midtable Everton (38 points).
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