Adam Redfern reporting live from the King Power Stadium
Anthony Knockaert’s superb second-half free-kick clinched Leicester City a well fought 2-1 win against Sheffield Wednesday at the King Power Stadium on Friday night.
The Foxes who played ahead of the fixture list will now have to wait until tomorrow to see if they will return to the Premier League following a 10 year absence. Should fellow promotion hopefuls Queens Park Rangers and Derby County fail to pick up a point, they will secure one of the two automatic promotion places up for grabs.
Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring on 10 minutes before Michael Antonio pulled one back just before half-time.
Mahrez’s driving run then forced Miguel Llera to make a challenge which gave Knockaert the chance to fire home the winner which he duly accepted.
The King Power Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Wednesday in the past winning three of the last four meets in the East Midlands.
Leicester City looked destined for an early opener when David Nugent picked out Knockaert in the area only for the Frenchman to fire wide.
Then with 10 minutes on the clock, Mahrez did what his fellow Frenchman couldn’t and coolly slotted The Foxes into the lead from 12 yards.
From then on the home side enjoyed the majority of possession and could have added to their early opener when Nugent shaped an effort narrowly wide from the edge of the box.
You could have accused The Foxes of being too complacent and underestimating of the threat that Sheffield Wednesday posed going forward. And when Knockaert lost the ball on the halfway line, Antonio on his return from injury, powered home Wednesday’s equaliser from 18 yards after being allowed time and space to drive inside from the left.
The second half saw both sides struggling to provide any real attacking threat but when Mahrez proved too hot to handle as he drove at the Wednesday defence, Llera gave away an unnecessary free-kick in a dangerous position.
Knockaert stepped up and as he has proved so many times this season, had the ability to arrow a sumptuous effort past Kirkland to regain The Foxes lead.
The Owls did all they could in the dying minutes to break down the Foxes resilient defence but to little avail as Leicester through their bodies on the line to ensure they secured yet another well fought home victory.
The win sees Leicester go 10 points clear at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.
Full match report and reaction to come.
