Leicester City 3-1 Liverpool
by Bella Katz
at Filbert Way

LEICESTER CITY fans had a date with Match of the Day on Valentine’s Day weekend, as Brendan Rodger’s fearless Foxes strengthened their Premier League campaign by comfortably beating reigning champions Liverpool 3-1.

The spectacular comeback consisted of three goals in seven minutes for the home side.

Before the match, both sides had it all to play for in the league race and set out their teams to score goals.

Rodgers was delighted with his team’s performance. “I thought that our reaction throughout the game was very good,” he said.

“We should’ve been in front first half, with three really good chances in the game. That reaction and how the players coped second half, I was so happy. We got the goals and then defended very well.”

Jurgen Klopp’s Reds were left heartbroken, dropping points away from home following two back-to-back losses at Anfield.

On Liverpool’s efforts in the match, he said: “We played the football we wanted to play, we avoided their counter-attacks. We did pretty much everything you have to do.”

When asked about the title race, he said: “I don’t think we can close that gap this year to be honest.”

An initial worry for Leicester was the absence of James Justin due to injury, a key player this season in their defence.

Wilfred Ndidi was fortunately on top form, completing a number of strong tackles in the first half, and winning the ball at crucial moments for the Foxes.

Liverpool were desperate to take something from the first half, but weren’t clinical enough with the chances they had — Mo Salah’s missed tries foreshadowed the final result.

In the 66th minute, Leicester failed to clear their lines which allowed the space for Salah to strike, causing the Liverpool subs bench to erupt with cheers, as he floated the ball past Kasper Schmeichel.

The Foxes took the goal on the chin, and there was a feeling in the air that the match wasn’t over.

The game was turned on its head when Harvey Barnes was fouled by Trent Alexander-Arnold and the referee granted a penalty, which was then rescinded by VAR.

Maddison took the free kick for Leicester and whipped the ball into the box, passing it through a sea of bodies and into the net. The Foxes started to celebrate, but the linesman raised his flag.

Rodgers expressed his relief with the goal: “Fantastic ball in from such a narrow angle, you are ideally crossing it to score and hopefully someone gets a touch on it. And that’s exactly what had happened. And that obviously gets us back in the game again.”

VAR then checked for the possible offside and controversially ended up reinstating the goal — the scoreline was all square with everything to play for.

A gross misjudgement from Alisson Becker set Jamie Vardy free, running towards an open goal.

He continued his run, tapped it in, and the atmosphere at the mostly empty ground became exhilarating. He took centre-stage to celebrate, using the corner flag to play air guitar — classic Vardy.

Harvey Barnes was a problem for Alexander-Arnold throughout the match, he was rapid on the wing and hard to contain. “I thought he was absolutely brilliant,” said Rogers.

It was game over in the 85th minute as Barnes struck the ball low with his right foot, diagonally past Alisson, into the opposite side of the net.

Leicester’s sights shift to the Europa League next, as they face Slavia Praha away on Thursday.