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Leicester 3-1 Everton: Jamie Vardy and Andy King on target as the newly-crowned Premier...
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27 дек 2016Leicester 3-1 Everton: Jamie Vardy and Andy King on target as the newly-crowned Premier League champions ease to victory at King Power before lifting the trophy in front of ecstatic home fans.
It finished as it had started, with a decisive victory inspired by Jamie Vardy.
All that was missing was the glorious sunshine which had adorned Leicester’s win on the opening day of the season against Sunderland here, way back in August.
It rained on their parade in Leicester, literally, with a spectacular thunderstorm during the match. Not that it mattered terribly. Andrea Bocelli sang; women in burkas waved Leicester City flags; a man in a wheelchair was wearing a Pavarotti mask. Wrong opera singer, but we knew what he meant and where his heart was.
There was a fairground outside the stadium. Inside they gleefully sung the hokey cokey, chorused about going on European tours and chanted ‘Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong’.
None of the above happens at Manchester United, Chelsea or Manchester City when they win the Premier League.
It was surreal, all of it. One minute we were lauding Alan Birchenall’s annual charity run, which is just the kind of thing you expect at homely Leicester; the next we were listening to Bocelli sing.
But it really happened. All of it. Including the presentation of the Premier League trophy to captain Wes Morgan at the end, by which time even the evening sun had crept out of hiding.
And one moment was more unexpected than all of the above. There were no tears from Claudio Ranieri, the man serenaded by the crowd from start to finish. He looked on the verge, but never cracked.
‘It was amazing when the maestro sang,’ he said. ‘But I’m a strange man! When I put my mind to it, I can say, “Claudio, calm now. The cameras all want to see if you cry”. Say today, no. But the emotion was at the top.’
None more so than Vardy, breaking into the box on 69 minutes. Matthew Pennington, booked earlier for a challenge on Mahrez, clumsily attempted to tackle and conceded the penalty. Presumably referee Andre Marriner only spared him what looked a second yellow because of the spirit of the occasion.
Vardy struck the penalty decisively to his left to take himself on to 24 goals. Three minutes later he had the chance of a third. Darron Gibson launched a rash challenge that felled Jeff Schlupp in the box. Vardy stepped up but this time he lofted the ball high over the bar. The hat-trick was not to be.
Nor could Leicester quite execute the perfect finish. On 88 minutes, the otherwise heroic N’Golo Kante faltered as he allowed Kevin Mirallas to beat him to the ball, evade Marcin Wasilewski and drive past Kasper Schmeichel. There would be no clean sheet, so no pizzas.
Still, captain Morgan summed it up. ‘It’s like a dream,’ he said. ‘It’s not a reality.’ And yet it all happened:
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