Vardy rolls back the years to keep Foxes in the hunt
ENZO MARESCA praised Jamie Vardy’s priceless contribution after the 37-year-old’s double helped Leicester twice hit back against Hull.
Fabio Carvalho missed a penalty for the Tigers before making amends minutes later to put them ahead on 16 minutes.
Vardy made no mistake from the spot to equalise as the teams went in level at half-time.
Anass Zaroury restored Hull’s lead only for Leicester to respond immediately when Vardy was left unmarked.
The draw leaves Leicester three points ahead of Leeds in their final league game until Good Friday with an FA Cup quarter-final to come at Chelsea next week.
Vardy has three goals in two games and 13 this season with Maresca saying: “He has the most important thing in football – that is how to score a goal.
“You can do anything you want but at the end you need to score a goal.
“Jamie played against Sunderland last game, he scored, we won and then for two days he didn’t train.
“We need to manage him and for sure he is going to help us until the end.”
The Italian, who was unhappy with the performance of referee Sam Barrott, pointed to his side’s spirit.
“We concede a goal but the reaction was there. We concede the second one and the reaction was there.
“And I think in this moment the character of the team is important.”
The Tigers had a great chance to take an early lead when Regan Slater was fouled following a surging run into the area.
Carvalho stepped up to take the resulting penalty only for keeper Mads Hermansen to save.
The Portuguese made up for it when he slipped the ball under the keeper after Anass Zaroury forced Wout Faes into squandering possession.
Kiernan Dewsbury-hall’s low shot came back off the post before Jean Michaël Seri barged over Abdul Fatawu in the area for the second penalty of the game with Vardy burying the spot-kick. Zaroury restored the lead when he collected the ball on the left of the area and drilled it across Hermansen low into the corner.
There was an instant response from Leicester as Fatawu found Vardy unmarked in the area and he made no mistake.
It was the Tigers’ fourth straight draw as they dropped out of the top six.
Hull boss Liam Rosenior spoke with pride, saying: “We dominated possession, more shots on target, a lot of really pleasing aspects.”
Leicester Shots on target Shots off target Blocked shots Corners Fouls Offsides Yellow cards Red cards Passing success % Tackles Tackles won % Possession %
HULL: Allsop 7; Coyle 6, Jones 6, Greaves 6, Giles 7; Slater 7, Seri 7; Philogene 6, Omur 6, Zaroury 7; Carvalho 7 LEICESTER: Hermansen 7; Choudhury 6, Faes 6, Vestergaard 7, Justin 6; Winks 7, Dewsbury-hall 7; Fatawu 7, Akgun 6 (Ndidi (45) 6), Mavididi 7; Vardy 8 (Daka (86) 6) STAR MAN: Jamie Vardy – Struck twice and used all his craft and guile on and off the ball. REF: Sam Barrott 7