Milivojevic stunner gives Palace three points against Leicester

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:26 am

Crystal Palace moved five points clear of the Premier League's bottom three when Luka Milivojevic scored to give them a 1-0 win over Leicester City on Saturday.

Roy Hodgson's side had suffered a nightmare spell in the top flight, winning just one of their previous 11 games, but triumphed for the first time in 14 games without influential forward Wilfried Zaha, who was suspended.

Leicester had the ball in the Palace net after 27 minutes but Jamie Vardy's effort was disallowed.

Vardy made the most of a poor touch from Crystal Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita, making his Premier League debut, and slotted the ball into the back of the net but was adjudged to have fouled the keeper.

Leicester were made to pay as Milivojevic put Palace into the lead with a stunning strike after 39 minutes.

The Serbia midfielder picked up the ball 25 yards from goal and fired a powerful shot that flew past Kasper Schmeichel into the top left-hand corner.

Another Vardy shot was kept out after 79 minutes. Kelechi Iheanacho fed the ball into the path of the Leicester forward who, from a tight angle, looked to have equalised but his effort was pushed onto the inside of the post by Guaita and went back into the arms of the Palace keeper.

Palace captain Milivojevic was pleased to see his side return to winning form, saying: "It's very big, a massive three points for us. I think we deserved it after everything.

"We've had many games where we scored but lost in the end and thankfully we broke that today.

"Winning at home is very important because, for the fans, from last season, we took many points here in our stadium and it's very important to have taken that back for our team and our confidence."

Leicester manager Claude Puel said his side were inconsistent. "I think we did not start the game with the right intensity. We played a poor first half, it was not enough," he told the BBC.

"We came back in the second half with a good intensity and quality. We had three or four chances to come back into the game.

"I think we deserved to come back but it is a big disappointment because we need the points."