Richarlison sets Everton on way to 2-0 win at Leicester
Brazilian forward Richarlison and defender Mason Holgate scored as Everton earned an impressive 2-0 win at Leicester City in the English Premier League on Wednesday (Dec 16).
Richarlison fired Carlo Ancelotti’s side ahead in the 21st minute, cutting in from the left before unleashing a low drive which Kasper Schmeichel saw late and failed to stop squeezing in the bottom corner.
Jamie Vardy had a great chance to pull Leicester level, but headed straight at Everton’s Robin Olsen, in for Jordan Pickford as Ancelotti rotated his goalkeepers.
Everton then suffered a blow when their Brazilian midfielder Allan went down with a hamstring injury and could not continue.
Despite the loss of the former Napoli midfielder, who had been influential, Everton maintained their dominance, moving the ball well.
The Toffees made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute when Schmeichel parried away a Michael Keane header from Gylfi Sigurdsson’s corner and did superbly to push Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s follow-up against the bar before Holgate pounced to poke home.
Leicester were awarded a penalty when substitute Ayoze Perez went down under a challenge from Andre Gomes, but the decision was overturned by referee Lee Mason after the VAR review showed there was no contact from the Everton midfielder.
A frustrating night for the Foxes, who have now suffered four home defeats this season, continued when Perez had the ball in the net, but the effort was ruled out for offside.
The victory was Everton’s fourth in seven away games this season and following their home win over Chelsea at the weekend, the Merseysiders moved up to fifth in the table on 23 points, a point behind Leicester.
“It was a good performance, we were consistent defensively and made good use of the counter-attack, I am satisfied,” said Ancelotti.
“We found a good consistency, we didn’t concede in these past two games. If you can keep clean sheets, you can win games.”.
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers felt his side could have got more out of their display.
“We are disappointed with the result, the players’ effort was good, they gave everything. We gave away two goals, but we didn’t give away much,” he said.
“When you go a goal behind, you have to show quality at the other end and we didn’t quite do that.
“It is one of those ones you drive home and you can’t quite understand how you have lost it but we did, we just have to be better in certain moments.” – REUTERS
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