Birm’ham 2 – 3 Leicester
Leicester re-established a three-point lead at the top of the Championship with a 3-2 win over Birmingham on Monday night.
Stephy Mavididi finished off a lightning counter-attack to give the Foxes the lead in spite of a bright start from Wayne Rooney’s men at St Andrew’s.
A well-crafted move saw Jordan James net a quickfire equaliser, but a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall strike and another from Mavididi had the visitors 3-1 up and coasting towards victory within the first five minutes of the second half.
From nowhere, James pulled another back with 16 minutes to play, but the goal did not spark the late comeback the hosts desired, despite the introduction of attacking pair Scott Hogan and Lukas Jutkiewicz.
Leicester move onto 55 points as a result of their fourth straight win, three clear of Ipswich and an incredible 13 ahead of third-placed Leeds.
How ruthless Leicester stayed right on track
The fact Ipswich and Leeds were both held at the weekend presented the Foxes with the chance to assert themselves as top dogs once more.
Stephy Mavididi opens the scoring for Leicester at the end of a devastating counter attack!
They had to weather an early storm, with Mads Hermansen forced to save from Siriki Dembele and Krystian Bielik – and after the corner that followed the latter, the visitors took the lead. Mavididi finished off the most devastating counter, seconds after James Justin’s attempted clearance rattled the framework of his own goal.
Jordan James finds the equaliser for Birmingham, after Leicester took an early lead
Within four minutes, though, Birmingham had the equaliser their exploits deserved, with James receiving a smart ball from Ivan Sunjic and firing across the six-yard box, into the opposite corner.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall restores Leicester’s lead in style with a superb composed finish!
The pendulum swung again soon after, with the Blues caught by a counter-attack similar to the one they had fallen behind to. Juninho Bacuna lost the ball on the edge of the area and Abdul Fatawu fed the ball to Dewsbury-Hall, who showed electric pace to dart away and find the empty net after drawing John Ruddy from his line.
Stephy Mavididi scores his second of the evening to extend Leicester’s lead early in the second half!
Dewsbury-Hall and Mavididi then linked up for the latter to extend the lead with 50 minutes on the clock. The latter received a ball swept out to the left-hand side and rifled into the top right corner via a deflection off Emanuel Aiwu.
Jordan James pulls one back for Birmingham to set up a tense finale against Leicester
As Leicester passed up further chances to put the game to bed, Rooney made a triple change in an attempt to inspire a comeback and it had at least some effect, with substitute Koji Miyoshi offering an helping hand to James reducing the deficit after an injection of pace on the right.
He then threw on Hogan and Jutkiewicz to try and force the equaliser, but it just did not follow.
Player of the match – Stephy Mavididi
Leicester’s Stephy Mavididi and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall react to their victory over Birmingham that puts them three points clear at the top of the Championship.
The managers
Birmingham’s Wayne Rooney
Birmingham manager Wayne Rooney says his side showed naivety with the goals they conceded to Leicester and came up short because of this.
Leicester’s Enzo Maresca
Leicester manager Enzo Maresca says his side completely deserved the three points against Birmingham and used the counter attack effectively when needed.
What’s next?
Both teams are back in action at 3pm on Saturday December 23.
Birmingham travel to Home Park to take on Plymouth, while Leicester host Rotherham at the King Power Stadium.
