LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – Leicester City won 4-1 at home to Southampton on the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday to end their campaign on a high note by sealing eighth place.
Having spent a chunk of their season as a mid-table team while they battled away in the Europa Conference League, Leicester finished the season with a four-match unbeaten run. Southampton finished 15th for the second season in a row.
The first half had no shots on target from either team but Leicester finally made the breakthrough four minutes after halftime when defender Lyanco failed to deal with Kasper Schmeichel’s long goal kick.
Jamie Vardy was swift to pounce on the headed back pass and had his shot blocked by goalkeeper Alex McCarthy but James Maddison arrived in the box to clean up and give Leicester the lead with his 12th league goal of the season.
Vardy gave Lyanco a difficult time and the striker eventually doubled the lead when he skipped past the Brazilian centre back’s poor tackle to fire in a shot at the near post.
Southampton halved the deficit five minutes later when James Ward-Prowse converted a penalty but any hope of a comeback was extinguished after second-half substitute Ayoze Perez scored twice — his first league goals of the season.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon)
