Crystal Palace 0-1 Leicester City: Mahrez goal puts Foxes eight points clear

Posted Sunday, March 20, 2016 by Goal.com

The Algeria international's 16th strike of the Premier League season was enough for Claudio Ranieri's men to take another big stride towards an historic triumph

Leicester City took another big stride towards the Premier League title as they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Riyad Mahrez scored the only goal of the game - his 16th of the season - in the 34th minute, picking up on a low cross from Jamie Vardy and firing home left-footed.

Though Alan Pardew's men had their fair share of pressure they were unable to prevent the extension of their winless run in the top flight to 13 games, while the Foxes are now eight points clear the top ahead of Tottenham's game against Bournemouth on Sunday.

Crystal Palace 0-1 Leicester City: Mahrez goal puts Foxes eight points clear

After a scrappy opening, Mahrez missed a golden chance to grab the lead on 18 minutes when, having been played in behind the Palace defence by Danny Drinkwater, his low shot was partially blocked by Wayne Hennessey before being cleared.

Palace responded with a bright spell of attacking possession, Wilfried Zaha bobbling a volley wide of the far post after being picked out by Yannick Bolasie, and the hosts were punished for that miss after 34 minutes. Vardy turned into space in the area and drilled the ball across the box, with Mahrez arriving to sweep home from close range while Hennessey was out of position.

Bolasie almost restored parity within two minutes but Kasper Schmeichel reacted well to parry his deflected shot away at the near post.

Pardew introduced Bakary Sako and Martin Kelly at half-time to inject some life into Palace but Leicester almost doubled their lead within three minutes of the restart, Shinji Okazaki firing just over on the turn after good work from Marc Albrighton.

Bolasie was proving a real handful as Palace began to pile on the pressure in their search for an equaliser and Wes Morgan produced one impeccable challenge to deny him a one-on-one following a long clearance forward.

Schmeichel showed safe hands when grasping Sako's bouncing drive from distance and Damien Delaney almost snatched a point when he rattled the crossbar in injury time with a volley from close range but Palace could not avoid a sixth consecutive league defeat at home.