Leicester hammered Southampton 5-0 to move within one win of promotion back to the Premier League.
A hat-trick from Abdul Fatawu alongside goals from Wilfried Ndidi and Jamie Vardy proved more than enough to see off a poor Saints at the King Power Stadium.
Leicester now know that a win at Preston next Monday night – live on Sky Sports Football - will be enough to guarantee their return to the Premier League.
For the Saints, the defeat all-but condemns them to the play-offs. They are six points behind Leeds in second with a significantly inferior goal difference and just two games to play.
As it stands at the top
- Victory for Leicester next Monday night at Preston (8pm) now guarantees promotion whatever happens elsewhere beforehand.
- Leeds in action at QPR on Friday night (8pm) and could move back to within a point of Leicester with a victory.
- Ipswich head to Hull on Saturday evening (8pm) in hope of closing gap on top two.
- Southampton are all-but guaranteed to be facing the play-offs.
- All three games are live on Sky Sports Football
Fatawu stars as Leicester cruise at the King Power
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Abdul Fatawu grabs a second for Leicester in stunning fashion.
The breakthrough for Leicester came on 25 minutes. Wout Faes won the ball back from Che Adams and Harry Winks sprang the ball forward to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who fed Fatawu with a pinpoint pass in the box, and he slid the ball calmly past Alex McCarthy.
Southampton boss Russell Martin wasn’t happy, believing Adams was fouled in the build-up and then Fatawu was offside, but the goal was given.
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Jamie Vardy and Abdul Fatuwu cap off a rampant performance for Leicester.
The Saints came out strongly after half-time, but it was Leicester who struck next. Just after the hour mark they won the ball high up the pitch and Stephy Mavididi crossed for Ndidi to head in.
Fatawu then got his second with a brilliant effort from the edge of the box, cutting in from the right and then bending one past McCarthy. He then teed up Vardy for Leicester’s fourth, as his low cross was met by the striker, who swept in at the near post.
And the night’s scoring was completed with aplomb by Fatawu, who turned in Vardy’s cross after a swift counter-attack had cut Southampton open.
The managers
Leicester’s Enzo Maresca:
To follow…
Southampton’s Russell Martin:
To follow…
