Read Daniel Taylor’s match report here:
Jon Moss has just given Leicester a point with a debatable penalty and he is being booed off the field. There’s an argument that it’s West Ham who were robbed, not Leicester, but it’s hard to say without having a proper look at the various replays. You can certainly understand why both sides are aggrieved as most of the key decisions were tight calls.
All that really matters is that Leicester are eight points clear, and a result that felt like a defeat when Carroll scored his penalty felt like a victory 13 minutes later when Ulloa scored from the spot at the other end. After a dull first half, the second was riotously entertaining. Thanks for your company; bye!
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Full time: Leicester 2-2 West Ham
That was pretty much the last kick of the game, and Leicester go eight points clear after a melodramatic second half.
It was a good penalty, sidefooted to the right as Adrian went the other way. That took a fair bit of courage. The Leicester fans are going doolally.
GOAL! Leicester 2-2 West Ham (Ulloa 90+5 pen)
ULLOA SCORES!
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It was Carroll on Schlupp, right on the corner of the box. It was a clumsy challenge from Carroll, but a bit of a soft penalty. Vardy and Mahrez are off the field, so Ulloa will take it.
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PENALTY TO LEICESTER IN THE 94TH MINUTE!
Oh my.
90+3 min Leicester are having more of the ball but there is no sense that a chance is coming.
90+1 min There will be four minutes of added time.
90 min Leicester implore the referee to give a penalty when Huth, trying to get to a long throw from the left, goes down after Ogbonna puts his arm around him from behind. That could easily have been given, and probably should have been given the precedent at the other end.
89 min “2-1 to the referee,” has been chanted for the last five minutes. Hmm.
88 min There’s no need for Leicester to panic. It’s still comfortably in their hands. The concern will be that the inevitable knee-jerk reaction of social media foghorns might start to insidiously undermine them. But their next fixture is a good one, Swansea at home, and there is no guarantee Spurs will win at Stoke tomorrow.
Antonio did brilliantly on the right and sent over a cross that was partially cleared by the head of Simpson. It came to Cresswell, 18 yards out towards the left side of the box, and as it bounced up he swished a magnificent shot into the far top corner. That was the best Ian Woan goal that Ian Woan never scored. Suddenly, this is getting very interesting - Spurs could be four points behind tomorrow.
GOAL! Leicester 1-2 West Ham (Cresswell 86)
What a stunning goal!
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86 min After a poor first half Payet has been increasingly influential. He has an incredible amount of courage to always demand the ball and always try things.
85 min Morgan will legitimately argue that those things happen all the time. It did look like a foul though.
GOAL! Leicester 1-1 West Ham (Carroll 84 pen)
With Mark Noble off the field, Carroll steps up and scores with an excellent penalty, sidefooted at pace into the bottom-right corner. Schmeichel went the wrong way.
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It’s soft but probably correct, with Wes Morgan putting his arms around Reid. They have been taking a risk on corners all day.
PENALTY TO WEST HAM
Oh my goodness. The referee is going to need a police escort.
82 min A cross from the left is headed up in the air and comes to Valencia on the corner of the six-yard box. With Huth storming towards him, he mishits a volley into the ground and Schmeichel claims it as it bounces up. Moments later, Payet’s corner is headed behind for a corner by Morgan. For the first time there is a slight desperation to Leicester’s defending.
81 min “Hawrite Rob,” says Ryan Dunne. “Exciting game. Not as much as a derby cup tie involving rivals from different leagues that ends in a 5-4 penalty shootout though!” You’re not a Glasgow Celtic fan, are you?
79 min The free-kick is 25 yards, slightly left of centre. Payet gets it up but not down: it’s way over the bar.
78 min Before the free-kick is taken, Mahrez is replaced by Daniel Amartey. He didn’t do a lot, but he did make the goal with a marvellous pass.
76 min Leicester’s reaction to their first significant adversity in six weeks has been excellent. West Ham have only really had one chance, Reid’s flick, and that was from a set piece. The pressure is building however, and Morgan is booked for fouling Carroll in Payet Territory(TM).
74 min A driven corner by Carroll is headed down to Antonio, 10 yards out with his back to goal. He plays an impromptu game of keepy-uppy while he tries to manufacture some space to turn - and then kicks it into his own face and falls other. That’ll be on Soccer AM next week.
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73 min Emenike drills a long-range shot miles over the bar as the Leicester fans continue their increasingly tedious abuse of the referee.
72 min Victor Moses, who started well and faded, is replaced by Enner Valencia.
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71 min Leicester could do with keeping the ball a little better, but defensively they look solid with their two banks of four.
69 min Leicester have coped really well since the red card. Drinkwater and Kante have been extremely good all game, but especially in the last 10 minutes.
Vardy not happy with being sent off !!! pic.twitter.com/mqWHFiKIrd
— John Gregory (@JohnGregory77) April 17, 2016
65 min This doesn’t change that much for Leicester, given the score and their tactics. It just means they don’t have Vardy’s furious pace on the counter-attack, and at the moment West Ham are having a lot of the ball.
63 min Lanzini replaces Noble, who wasn’t quite owned by Drinkwater, but was his rented property for 63 minutes.
62 min A superb cross from Payet on the right comes to Reid on the six-yard line at the near post. He is under pressure from Morgan and improvises a flying volley behind his front leg (you can’t call it the standing leg as he was in mid-air) that goes just wide of the near post. It might have hit the outside of the post in fact.
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62 min “Actually,” says Eddie Besley, who is a Chelsea fan, “on second thoughts I think Ranieri is a sweet old chap who looks like a super intellectual studying why fireflies poo in a certain place.”
61 min “Will Vardy miss any games as a result of the red card?” asks Sean Boiling. As it was two yellow cards he’ll miss one game, Swansea at home next week.
“Another unlikely title was 1. FC Kaiserslautern back in 1998, winning the Bundesliga directly after being promoted,” says Stefan Ruile. “In that season, they had a fierce battle with Bayern Munich and won it one week early with a victory over VfL Wolfsburg, which were promoted in the same year.At the time, Andreas Brehme, the young Michael Ballack, Ciriaco Sforza and Fussballgott Olaf Marschall (scored 21 in 24 appearances, a true Jamie Vardy) featured in the team. Manager was Otto Rehagel, who won the European Championships with Greece a few years later and became King Rehakles subsequently. Keep pushing, Leicester.”
Ah, Andy Brehme, the man with two right feet.
59 min That was brave refereeing as well, as he could easily have bottled it and not showed a second yellow. Anyway, Leicester make a change, with Ulloa replace the lone striker Okazaki.
58 min “You’re not fit to referee,” chant the Leicester fans, all of whom had a perfect view of the incident.
There was contact between Vardy and Ogbonna, but I doubt it was enough for a penalty, and certainly not enough for the flying leap that followed. His first yellow card was extremely harsh; that one, less so.
VARDY SENT OFF FOR DIVING
It looked a preposterous dive on first viewing.
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55 min Okazaki’s mishit low shot from the left of the box is this far away from Vardy, who would have had a simple tap-in at the far post.
54 min “It’s Mac’s cat who should write the autobiography,” says Gary Naylor.
53 min Fuchs’s outstanding cross from the left is headed wide by Huth. He was only four yards out but he had jump backwards to reach it and couldn’t get over the ball. Moments later, Jeffrey Schlupp replaces Marc Albrighton.
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52 min “Rob,” says Mac Millings. “My life reached its zenith on Friday night, when I watched The Godfather on the big screen, in a beautiful theatre, with the score played by a highly accomplished live orchestra. It doesn’t quite cancel out the time I spent the day at work not realising I was wearing a white shirt that reeked of a bright yellow cat pee stain, or the time my wife laughed all the way through our wedding vows, or the time I peed my pants at cub scouts, but you can’t have everything. Or anything, mostly.”
You should write an autobiography. Seriously. I’d buy it.
50 min A corner to West Ham is delayed because of an impromptu wrestling match between Huth and Carroll. There are some beasts on the pitch now - and one of them, Andrew Carroll, heads wide from Payet’s chance. It was a difficult chance because the ball dipped sharply and he had to dive towards the ball, 10 yards from goal. He couldn’t get enough on it and it went well wide of the near post.
49 min It seems that Huth was lucky not to concede a penalty for a foul on Reid moments before Leicester scored. That passed me by completely. Sorry!
48 min “What’s the Chelsea fans’ attitude to Ranieri?” asks Rob Moline. “Do they love him as they should, like the rest of us? Or revile him for tinkering and costing them Big Cup in 2004, where they certainly (cough!) would have beaten Mourinho’s Porto if they had got past Monaco?”
No idea. I suspect he’s loved. Anyone? I doubt they’d have beaten Porto anyway.
47 min “I like Leicester fans a bit more now,” says David Acaster. “Only two, possibly three of the fans in that picture are on their phones, the rest of them are actually watching their players celebrate in front of them. Good.” Yeah I’ve never understood that. You’re taking a picture to recall a special moment that you didn’t properly experience because you were taking a picture.
46 min Peep peep! West Ham have made a substitution, with Andy Carroll replacing Pedro Obiang.
Half time: Leicester 1-0 West Ham
Textbook stuff from Leicester, who lead through Jamie Vardy’s brilliant counter-attacking goal. See you in 10 minutes!
45 min A corner to West Ham on the left, to be taken by Payet. Huth nuts it away.
44 min Mahrez sparks another counter-attack with a beautiful pass to Drinkwater, who then gives it away.
42 min Payet is booked for a poor tackle on Vardy. He apologised straight away.
40 min Noble is booked for a sliding foul on Drinkwater, who is winning their battle.
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39 min Payet is having a poor game, with lots of misplaced passes, though that’s unavoidable when you try as many original and daring things as he does.
35 min This game has played out perfectly so far for Leicester - sit deep, score on the break, sit even deeper, try to score again on the break. I suppose the only danger with not conceding for ages is that you don’t know how you will react when you do, but for now they look comfortable. Danny Drinkwatercarrier is having another fine game.
30 min Reid is booked for trying to sidefoot Okazaki down the right touchline. On the other touchline, Claudio Ranieri and Slaven Bilic are literally having a laugh. Imagine not liking Claudio Ranieri.
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28 min Vardy is booked for a late tackle on Kouyate. That looked a bit soft. West Ham are having a lot of the ball but Leicester, who have kept clean sheets in seven of their last eight league games at home, are defending fairly comfortably.
27 min “Vardy’s first touch for the goal,” says Simon Christopher. “Absolutely 100% crucial with the defender coming in.” Yeah, it was terrific, he had almost no margin for error. He’s a much more accomplished footballer than most people think.
25 min Emenike chases a long ball forward and bounces comically off Morgan before falling over. They’ve just shown a replay off the goal. Everything about it was so good: Schmeichel’s throw, Mahrez’s pass, Kante’s surge and Vardy’s emphatic finish.
25 min “I’m trying to explain the difference between 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 / 4-2-3-1 to my 18 year-old son to convince him that Okazaki is not an authentic forward,” says Gary Naylor. “He just hasn’t seen enough twin forwards to recognise them. It’s making me feel old.”
Now you know how Ted felt.
23 min There’s a bit of a row between Morgan and Emenike, who wasn’t enamoured with a tackle from behind. Great to see that sort of thing.
Mahrez received Schmeichel’s throw on the halfway line, turned and opened the game up with a fine angled pass to Kante. He moved forward and played another good ball to Vardy on the left of the box; he controlled it into the space in front before driving an emphatic finish back across goal with his left foot. After Schmeichel threw the ball Leicester took just nine touches to score.
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GOAL! Leicester 1-0 West Ham (Vardy 18)
A superb goal from Jamie Vardy gives Leicester the lead!
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16 min Moses gets behind Fuchs and into the box but his low cross is cleared by Huth. West Ham look fairly dangerous.
11 min Mahrez slaloms infield to the edge of the area and then lays it back to Drinkwater, whose rising drive is a few yards over.
10 min Leicester appeal for a penalty when Vardy and Ogbonna tangle in the box as they go for Fuchs’ long throw. That was stunad from Ogbonna, who has his arm round Vardy’s neck at one stage. Moments later he concedes a needless free kick down Leicester’s right - and Leicester should score from it. Albrighton’s floated free-kick found Huth, six yards out, but his downward header bounced up and just wide of the far post.
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7 min “Sometimes,” says Niall Mullen, “they go in.”
6 min West Ham have started strongly, with most of the ball. Leicester won’t mind that, such is their counter-attacking prowess.
4 min “My country Kenya are the cup winners in the Singapore Sevens that just concluded,” says Timothy Kipkirui. “We are soo happy here. Now looking forward to that Leicester game.”
2 min Kouyate hits both posts! That is ridiculous. Payet’s free-kick from the right was headed towards goal by Kouyate at the near post. Schmeichel, stretching a long way to his left, made a brilliant save but could only tip it onto the post. It seemed sure to rebound into the net, but instead it bounced all the way across the line and onto the other post before bouncing back into Schmeichel’s loving embrace. Believers in destiny are currently wearing a smug smile.
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1 min Peep peep! West Ham kick off from right to left.
The players are in the tunnel, all having applied their business-face. Ready? Let’s cook.
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Mind The Time When...
Sampdoria’s title win 25 years ago is the most unlikely and charming I’ve ever seen, and will remain so for at least another seven days.
An email “One of the joys of Leicester’s run this season has the use of simple tactics and using square pegs in square holes,” says Nick Parmenter. “Too often now managers seem to be overcomplicating the game!”
There has been plenty of talk about Leicester’s 1962-63 season, when they almost did the Double. This is the definitive piece on the subject, from the great Rob Bagchi.
Team news
Leicester (4-4-2) Schmeichel; Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs; Mahrez, Kante, Drinkwater, Albrighton; Vardy, Okazaki.
Substitutes: Schwarzer, King, Amartey, Schlupp, Gray, Ulloa, Wasilewski.
West Ham (4-3-3) Adrian; Antonio, Ogbonna, Reid, Cresswell; Obiang, Kouyate, Noble; Moses, Emenike, Payet.
Substitutes: Randolph, Byram, Tomkins, Collins, Lanzini, Valencia, Carroll.
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Preamble Hello. If you had suggested in August that Leicester City would win the league, you’d have been accused of talking nonsense. And your accuser would have been right. This Leicester story makes no sense at all. Probably never will. Who cares? One of the manifestations of English football’s sad cultural cringe is the need to explain and analyse everything to within an inch of its life. How did it happen? What have we learned? Where does it rank? What does it mean?
The brain has taken primacy from the soul. But the soul will always take you to higher places you can’t reach with a listicle, a chalkboard and a spreadsheet. Forget trying to make sense of it all; just feel it. This is the time of our football-watching lives – and we’re just the neutrals. Heaven knows how euphoric Leicester fans must be.
Leicester need nine points from their last five games to be sure of the title. But if they beat West Ham today and Spurs lose at Stoke tomorrow, they could clinch it as soon as next Sunday. The startling thing is not just that they should win the league, it’s that they should do so at at a canter.
Kick off is at 1.30pm.
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