ClapFriday Night Football produced another really entertaining game last night as Norwich City hosted Leicester City at Carrow Road. While this should’ve served as the perfect opportunity for Leicester to strengthen their grip on their place in the top four, it turned out to be quite the opposite as the Canaries shocked Brendan Rodgers’ side with a 1-0 win to lift them to within four points of safety.
Leicester seemed to control the pace of the game and had their fair share of opportunities, but even with that being the case, it always felt like there was a certain trepidation to their play.
Whenever Norwich came forward you could tell they were just throwing everything against the wall and seeing what stuck which, in itself, isn’t the worst tactic we’ve ever heard.
Overcoming the odds
The Foxes will feel slightly frustrated by the fact that they had a goal chalked out for handball by VAR, with Kelechi Iheanacho being denied the chance to get himself on the scoresheet.
Then, with 20 minutes left to play, a long range thunderbolt from Jamal Lewis gave them the three points they so desperately needed.
After the game, Rodgers had the following to say about his side’s shock defeat.
“We are disappointed with our goal being ruled out,” Rodgers said.
“We felt it was very, very harsh. It was unintentional but it hits their player’s arm and drops on to Kelechi’s.
“We have been inconsistent. We can’t dance around the truth, we need to be better but that is something I am confident we can do.
“We need to get that focus back in our game.”
Daniel Farke, on the other hand, was understandably pleased to get the win.
“A win is always good for the mood and confidence but I am not over the moon,” Farke said.
“It was important that we were on top of our game to get some points because we are the underdogs in this league.
“There are more than 20 points, let us see how far we can go. We will be brave and let’s see what the outcome can be.”
Pushing back
Norwich will look ahead to their remaining fixtures with very little reason to be concerned, knowing that they aren’t expected to stay in the Premier League anyway.
If they do, it’ll be up there with the finest great escapes that we’ve seen in the top flight when you consider just how many people decided to write them off from the word go.
Leicester, on the other hand, have a league campaign that is starting to fall apart ever so slightly. They should still be able to steady the ship and find themselves in the top five, and if Manchester City’s UCL ban holds up, that will be good enough for them to edge into the Champions League.
Alas, we’ve all come to learn that we should expect the unexpected at this level, which is why they need to buck their ideas up – and they need to do so fairly quickly.
