BEVERLY HILLS, May 11, (THEWILL) – Finally, the hour came long after it was expected.
Manchester City are officially champions of England and because they were denied on their own turf by fierce rivals Chelsea, they needed their city rivals to lose for their long-preserved Champagne to come out for the celebrations that are sure to follow after fine goals from Justin Thomas and Caglar Soyuncu gave Leicester a crucial win over a heavily rotated Manchester United team at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
Brendan Rodgers will now heave a prolonged sigh of relief after a sudden string of poor results almost brought back the ghosts of last season to haunt his Leicester side but with eight and nine points ahead of West Ham and Liverpool respectively, there is a good shot for elite football in Europe next season for the Foxes.
Even though Ole Gunnar Solskjaer fielded an inexperienced and youthful United side, Leicester had it tough in the opening exchanges until Luke Thomas opened the scoring in the 10th minute. The response from the bristling Red Devils was swift with credit to young talent.
Amad Diallo weaved past Thomas before finding Mason Greenwood, who burst by Caglar Soyuncu and slid home his eighth goal in 11 games for United.
With some input from Rodgers at the interval, the visitors pushed the extra burners and started to make the difference in experience between the players on both sides show. Six minutes after the hour mark and Caglar Soyuncu escaped his markers Marcus Rashford and Nemanja Matic to power a header from a corner kick past David De Gea, in goal for United.
Solskjaer introduced some firepower to inject some boost into the team but then the trio of Edinson Cavani, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford mustered little to change the outcome. In so doing, they handed the EPL title to their local rivals and Leicester helped themselves with a fine form with which to go into Saturday’s FA Cup final.
City now finally claim their hard-fought trophy, the third in four seasons, with an eye on the biggest prize ahead, the UEFA Champions League finals against EPL rivals Chelsea.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
