Leicester City vs Southampton. Premier League.
The King Power StadiumAttendance32,003.
Match report as Leicester City signed off their Premier League campaign in style with a 4-1 win over Southampton at the King Power Stadium
Sunday 22 May 2022 22:20, UK
Leicester cruised to a 4-1 win against Southampton at the King Power Stadium on the final day.
A goalless first half failed to muster one shot on target and was plagued with mistakes and slips, from a season curtain-closing fixture with nothing but three points on the line for both sides.
Despite this, Leicester had the lion's share of quality chances with Jamie Vardy, uncharacteristically, spurning several clear opportunities, almost pouncing on Alex McCarthy dawdling on the ball and failing to connect cleanly with a Timothy Castagne cross.
However, the deadlock was broken from a route-one long ball from Kasper Schmeichel, but was equally created by calamitous defending from Lyanco - who headed the clearance skyward before attempting to head it back to McCarthy - but the pass fell straight to Vardy, whose rebounded shot landed at the feet of in-form Maddison to cooly finish.
The Foxes were well on top when Wesley Fofana made a breakout pass to Harvey Barnes from inside his own box. Barnes broke down the left flank and looked to switch play towards Maddison - but Vardy intercepted, cut inside, composed himself and smashed it low past McCarthy's right-hand side.
Southampton were handed a lifeline five minutes later when James Ward-Prowse converted a penalty, but the one-goal deficit lasted merely a minute.
Maddison curled in a delightful pass from the left flank with his right foot, which bounced in front of substitute Ayoze Perez, who improvised by jumping to connect with a scissor kick - smashing home his side's third goal.
Perez sealed the win and a fine cameo appearance with his second goal after fellow substitute Ricardo Pereira found the Spaniard in exactly the same position where he finished his first goal - finishing with equal style and precision to sign the season off in style.
''When you have the ball, you're meant to get it back, but in a way where you can actually do something with it - not with the long ball and Vardy immediately pressing. What is that!
"We had the chance to end up higher, but in the end, we were struggling to get through trials as there were many things going against us.
"For example, injuries, situations like today, decisions against us and in the end this is what we get, 15th position. There's definitely a lot to do in the summer."
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers also responded to the controversy that put his team in front: ''I thought it was a little confusing to myself to be honest.
"The players obviously thought that John [Moss] has given us a free-kick. It should be played back to Kasper - he's played a direct ball through. Their centre-half made a mistake and if he heads it back, there's no drama. But he's made a mistake and we capitalised on it.
"Overall it seemed a little confusing, hence the players were unsure of what the decision was. But from that, you have to push on and get the remaining goals and my team did that very well."
The win on the last day of the season meant that Leicester finished eighth in the Premier League - which is the club's fourth-best finish in 46 years, despite the tribulations that the Foxes had to deal with.
Rodgers added: "I think throughout the course of the season, our squad's been decimated with injuries. They've shown great courage to keep going and fight despite the criticism that we've had.
"To finish eighth, it's as high as we could finish, and we wanted to do that. I said four or five games ago that we didn't want to finish with a whimper. The players have certainly not done that.
"They've won three games, drawn our last one against Chelsea and have given us a good foundation for the pre-season and moving into next season."
