Sports

Manchester City clinch title with Leicester win over Man United

Sports Desk, May 11 (EFE).- Manchester City clinched their third Premier League title in four years Tuesday as Leicester City defeated Manchester United 1-2, making it mathematically impossible for the Red Devils to overtake the “noisy neighbors.”

The Foxes, however, were happy about climbing to third in the table on 66 points, just 2 more than Chelsea but 8 points better than West Ham United, the main threat to Leicester’s reaching the Champions League for only the second time in their history.

Facing three matches in five days because of the May 2 fixture against Liverpool had to be postponed amid an invasion of Old Trafford by fans unhappy with the club’s owners, United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made 10 changes to the side he picked last Sunday against Aston Villa.

The hosts started with the likes of Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Edinson Cavani on the bench as Solskjaer looked ahead to Thursday’s rescheduled clash with Liverpool.

Solskjaer instead went with veterans, such as Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic, and younger players who have failed to become regular starters, including 2020 acquisition Donny van de Beek.

Leicester City coach Brendan Rodgers made the calculation that the need to accumulate points in the Premier League after drawing with Southampton and losing to Newcastle United in their last two outings outweighed any consideration of resting players for Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea.

Yet the opening goal for the visitors on Tuesday came from 19-year-old Luke Thomas, a Leicester City Academy product appearing in only his 15th match.

Thomas got his first Premier League goal in the 10th minute, beating keeper David De Gea with a tremendous volley off a cross from Youri Tielemans.

Mason Greenwood, the only holdover from the side who defeated Villa, equalized for United in the 15th minute with his sixth goal in as many games.

The sides were still level at 1-1 at the hour mark when De Gea made a good save to deny Kelechi Iheanacho minutes before Solskjaer brought on Rashford and Cavani in search of more punch on the attack.

But the change coincided with a Leicester corner and Rashford failed to stop Caglar Soyuncu from heading Marc Albrighton’s kick past De Gea to put the Foxes up 1-2.

While United continued to press for a second goal, they failed to create any problems for Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel and the visitors collected all 3 points. EFE

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