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Post by Football News on Nov 6, 2016 18:57:46 GMT
West Bromwich’s Matt Phillips pounces to end Leicester’s unbeaten home runHome team scorersIslam Slimani 55 Away team scorersJames Morrison 52 Matt Phillips 72 Matt Phillips ended Leicester City’s long unbeaten home record in the Premier League and, in doing so, confirmed the improbability of Claudio Ranieri’s side retaining their crown. Leicester had not lost at the King Power Stadium in more than a year but here they were deservedly toppled by West Bromwich Albion. James Morrison headed the visitors in front in the 52nd minute before Islam Slimani equalised for the ailing champions, who contributed to their own downfall as a mistake by Danny Drinkwater helped Phillips to plunder the winning goal. Last season Leicester conquered thanks to their efficiency, as they were a unit in which every component gelled and excelled to create synergy. They have sputtered for much of this campaign because of the loss of N’Golo Kanté and, domestically at least, whatever mental fuel it was that helped drive them to the title. In the past fortnight they had shown signs of rediscovering their fluency but here they relapsed into disjointedness. Albion functioned better from the start. Leicester’s scruffiness surfaced in the second minute, when Andy King was caught dawdling midway inside his own half by Salomón Rondón, who burst into the box and curled a low shot towards the bottom corner. Ron-Robert Zieler dived to tip it around the post. It was a terrific save but the goalkeeper’s unfamiliarity with his team-mates soon added to Leicester’s problems, a point that Claudio Ranieri tried to highlight by gesticulating from the sidelines for Zieler to distribute the ball more quickly when he was in possession. That is what Kasper Schmeichel normally does but with the Dane absent because of a fractured hand, Zieler tended to dwell on the ball and rather than launch swift counterattacks he was twice nearly caught in possession by Rondón, the game’s outstanding forward. Rondón met a cross by Phillips in the 15th minute. His header missed the target but the fact that he was dominating Wes Morgan and Robert Huth in the air, as well as on the ground, was ominous for Leicester. The hosts, meanwhile, were at pains to trouble the visiting defence. Ranieri had opted to start with Shinji Okazaki and Islam Slimani up front and leave Jamie Vardy on the bench, possibly because he figured Albion would defend deep. But that is not what Albion did when they almost derailed Leicester’s title charge in March by drawing here 2-2 and they played with similar enterprise here. Ahmed Musa, operating wide on the left, had enough speed to stretch the Albion defence but his deliveries were bad enough to suggest that if he were your milkman, you would find broken bottles on your doorstep every morning. Riyad Mahrez was no better in the first half. But Phillips was. His cross in the 17th minute forced Christian Fuchs into an urgent intervention to stop Chris Brunt from scoring from close range. Ranieri replaced Okazaki with Vardy at half-time and Leicester improved. But not before they fell behind. Rondón was instrumental in the breakthrough, winning the ball in midfield before feeding Phillips, whose cross from the right was guided into the net by a header from James Morrison. That triggered a reaction from Leicester and the champions drew level three minutes later. The goal came from a long-distance Algerian one-two, as Slimani swept the ball wide to Mahrez and then galloped into the box to get on the end of his compatriot’s cross and equalise with a splendid header as Jonny Evans wondered from whence he came. Now we had a high-octane contest and the game hurtled from one end to the other. Danny Simpson had to bundle a header off his own line in the 70th minute. But eventually Leicester were undone by another outbreak of sloppiness as Danny Drinkwater wrong-footed his own defence with a loose pass. Phillips cantered on to it and finished with a neat clip over the advancing Zieler as Morgan tried in vain to keep up. Guardian
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