LUKA’S A SUPER SKIPPER
Crystal Pal 1 Leicester 0 Tony Stenson
NO Wilfried Zaha, no worries for Palace. Their suspended ace sat in the stand as they won for only the second time in 12 games.
A quality strike from skipper Luka Milivojevic (below) was the outstanding moment of a poor game. He drove home sweetly from 25 yards after some good work by Andros Townsend and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
It was just about the only decent Palace move of the game. Not that their manager Roy Hodgson was worried, despite a daunting trip to Manchester City next week.
He said: “I like to think we can show we can also win games without Wilf, although any team would miss a player like him. But the facts show that we can.
“I accept it wasn’t a pretty game but I like to think we deserved it. Pretty games happen when teams attack and the opposition then attack. But both defences were excellent and I thought that Maguire and Morgan were excellent today for Leicester.
“I also accept the goal probably deserved a better game but I am not complaining. We have played better and lost. Not a great game, but we won – that is satisfying for a change.” Leicester were by far the better side – Harry Maguire was massive in central defence for them – yet they could never deliver the killer pass. If they had produced a better supply line to striker Jamie Vardy, who does not look fully fit, it might have ended differently.
“One moment settled the game,’’ said Foxes boss Claude Puel. “We needed to keep the ball better and lacked quality at that stage.
‘‘We improved in the secondhalf and I thought we were unlucky not to get something from the game today.”
It’s two games now for
Leicester without a goal after they had scored in all their previous matches this term.
Puel added: “We will continue with our style and hopefully put things right again. We needed to fight in the first-half, but improved in the second.”