Sunday Express

LUKA’S A SUPER SKIPPER

- By

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.”

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