(Reuters) – Midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall set up Leicester City’s first goal and scored a sublime second as they traded places with opponents Crystal Palace to go ninth in the Premier League after a tense 2-1 win at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.
Two moments of quality from the Leicester academy graduate, 23, within six first-half minutes for the hosts proved enough to separate the teams despite a late surge from Palace after Wilfried Zaha’s goal.
Dewsbury-Hall picked up the ball in midfield and threaded a pass for winger Ademola Lookman, who fired past Palace keeper Vicente Guaita with 10 minutes remaining in the first half to score his first goal since February.
Palace defender Marc Guehi miscontrolled the ball in his own half, allowing Leicester forward Patson Daka to find Dewsbury-Hall. The midfielder curled a powerful shot from 18 yards to score his first Premier League goal seconds before halftime.
“I have dreamt it since I was a little boy,” Dewsbury-Hall said. “It means so much. It’s a dream come to true to score in the Premier League.”
Having missed a handful of early chances, Patrick Vieira’s side finally gave Leicester reason to sweat after halving the deficit in the 65th minute when Zaha headed in the rebound from his retaken penalty after his first attempt was saved by Kasper Schmeichel.
Palace were awarded a spot-kick when Youri Tielemans tripped Jordan Ayew and Schmeichel had pushed away Zaha’s effort but, the penalty was retaken following a VAR check which spotted encroachment from Leicester defender Caglar Soyuncu.
Leicester weathered the visitors’ attacking spells to see out the win and move into ninth in the league standings with 40 points and two games in hand over Palace, who are three points behind in 10th place.
“Kiernan has been waiting for his Premier League goal, it was a wonderful strike and he showed energy throughout the game,” Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers said. He typifies everything we want to be… and has a cultured left foot.”
“Since he’s broken into the team, I felt throughout the season it was what we were missing. The team was missing intensity and pressure and he has brought that.”
The result ended a seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions for Palace, who will face Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
Rodgers’ Leicester will travel to PSV Eindhoven on Thursday for the return leg of their Europa Conference League quarter-final tie before returning to Premier League action at Newcastle United next weekend.
(Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
