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Luka Milivojevic
Luka Milivojevic after scoring a stunning winner for Crystal Palace against Leicester. Photograph: MB Media/Getty Images
Luka Milivojevic after scoring a stunning winner for Crystal Palace against Leicester. Photograph: MB Media/Getty Images

Luka Milivojevic’s magic lifts Roy Hodgson as Palace edge Leicester

This article is more than 5 years old

Wilfried who? Crystal Palace, after 14 consecutive defeats across two seasons in Premier League matches played without their star player in the starting line-up, have finally won.

It was not pretty but Roy Hodgson did not care on a day that marked the end of relentless speculation that his team are incapable of prevailing without Wilfried Zaha.

A stunning Luka Milivojevic first-half strike lit up an often scrappy game on a filthy afternoon in south London.

As well-timed as it was well-struck, the goal came just as Leicester were beginning to take control. “It’s quite nice to put that one to bed,” the Palace manager said of the Zaha statistic. “It’s something that’s got people writing and talking more about it than we have been.”

Both managers had rung the changes after defeats last weekend. With Zaha and James Tomkins sitting this one out on the naughty step, Jordan Ayew and Martin Kelly were asked to step up by Hodgson. Kelly was outstanding alongside Mamadou Sakho but Ayew was abject. In goal Vicente Guaita made his first Premier League start for the club in place of Wayne Hennessey, absent with a back spasm.

The Spaniard had an early scare when Jamie Vardy barged him off the ball and poked into an unguarded net, only to be adjudged to have illegally shouldered the goalkeeper in the back. For Leicester Christian Fuchs got a rare start at full-back in the absence of the injured Ben Chilwell while Vardy and Harry Maguire were welcomed back from the treatment room.

The winning goal came out of nowhere. Andros Townsend, with the ball at his feet near the right touchline six minutes before the break, played it inside to Milivojevic. Surveying his options, the Palace captain set himself up with a touch or two before sending a rasping 25-yard drive curling away from the Leicester goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel.

An otherwise dire first half had begun in conditions so foul even Kayla, the Crystal Palace eagle, dug in her talons and refused to perform more than one of her traditional pre-match swoops, choosing instead to sit in the rain looking as she would rather be anywhere else.

As a game extremely low on quality approached half-time, the rest of those present felt her pain. Most perked up immeasurably when the outstanding Milivojevic struck.

“It was a goal worthy of winning any game, which you’ve got to be pleased about,” said Hodgson.

It was a good job Milivojevic scored, as Zaha’s replacement could scarcely have been more ineffectual. Ayew has endured a difficult time at Palace since arriving as a summer loan signing from Swansea, a club whose fans could not wait to see the back of him. Yet to score in 13 appearances for his new club, he was bullied by Leicester’s captain, Wes Morgan, and missed a glorious chance to open his account in the second half.

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With Leicester trailing, Claude Puel had sent on Rachid Ghezzal after the interval, removing the curiously ineffectual James Maddison on grounds he described as tactical. The midfielder’s card had already been marked when he found himself on the receiving end of an uncharacteristically angry volley of abuse from his manager for carelessness in possession. His replacement prompted further frustration when sending a gilt-edged chance fizzing just the wrong side of the upright.

The pick of Leicester’s chances, however, went to Vardy and his expression on failing to convert it was one of total disbelief.

Having narrowly avoided embarrassment at the striker’s hands in the first half, Guaita got down low to his right and pushed a clever, curling, goal-bound flick on to the post before gratefully clutching the fortuitous rebound.

“Vicente was thrown in at the last minute and didn’t have much time to prepare,” said Hodgson. “I thought he played very well.” His save was the stand-out moment of a tense second half, which concluded with a roof-raising roar.

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