With European football well within their
reach, West Ham United visited league leaders Leicester City on Sunday.
In a game dominated by a red card and two
penalties, Leicester manage to keep their title hopes alive, and West Ham fans
can still believe that their team can qualify for European football next year
with a 2-2 draw.
Leicester came into the game on a tide of
good form and with a boisterous and expecting home crowd.
They started with the same strong team
whose success has landed them at the top of the table, with talisman Jamie
Vardy leading the attack, alongside his Algerian strike partner Riyad Mahrez.
Andy Carroll, West Ham’s hat-trick hero
from last weekend began the game on the bench, as manager Slaven Bilic preferring
Nigerian striker Victor Moses to the Englishman.
The decision would prove a good one, as
Moses persistently pushed at the Leicester City defence, and worked well with Mark
Noble on several occasions. But they never quite broke down the strong Foxes
defence, lead by their indomitable leaders Robert Huth and Wes Morgan.
After a nervous first eighteen minutes with
West Ham winning several free kicks on the edge of the penalty area and Cheikhou
Kouyaté managing to deflect one of Payet’s efforts past Schmeichel before
hitting both posts, Jamie Vardy opened the scoring with a brilliant left footed
drive.
Mahrez and Kanté broke from the halfway
line, and Kanté passed beautifully into Vardy’s stride. The West Ham defence
angrily called for offside, but the officials made the right decision, as the
King Power Stadium crowd burst into applause and chants of “We’re going to win
the league”.
A few minutes later, in what would turn out
to be a vital moment, Jamie Vardy tackled Kouyaté around halfway, and although
not a serious foul, it was from behind and probably deserved the yellow card Jonathan
Moss deemed it worthy.
That was perhaps the beginning of the trouble
for both sides, as tempers began to rise, and Dimitri Payet was soon booked for
a painful looking tackle on Vardy. Again a tackle deserving of the yellow card
given.
It remained 1-0 at the break.
When the teams returned to battle, Andy
Carroll was brought on for the ineffectual Pedro Obiang.
His impact was immediate, as although both
teams started again with pace and purpose, and Vardy worked two half chances,
Carroll’s aerial threat was used to great effect in a clear change of tactics
by Bilic.
Marc Albrighton had looked at half-pace all
day, and was substituted for Jeffrey Schlupp just before the hour mark as
Leicester tried to react to the renewed vigour of the Irons attack.
Leicester continued to look the better
side, and Okazaki soon beat his marker on the left wing to drive a low ball
across the face of goal. If Vardy had been a second quicker to react, in the
words of Claudio Ranieri, the score could easily have been 2-0. But he wasn’t.
And only a minute later the game would be changed irreversibly by a contentious
and, at least with home fans, unpopular decision.
As Vardy ran on to another piercing through
ball from the midfield, his legs tangled with the retreating defender, and they
both tumbled to the ground inside the penalty box.
It looked immediately like a penalty, and
as the crowd bayed, and the referee blew a sharp blast on his whistle, it
seemed as though the Foxes loyal following would get their wish.
But in fact, Mr Moss had seen the affair in
an entirely different light to the majority in the stadium, and even a
significant number in the press box.
Jamie Vardy was penalised for diving, and
to the distress of 30,000 Leicester fans, was shown a second yellow card.
Unsurprisingly in such a situation,
involving a player not known for his long temper, a scuffle followed and
rumours later surfaced that Vardy had used some, let’s say, choice language
towards the officials. No doubt we’ll hear more of that story later tonight,
though Ranieri told the post-match press conference that he had no idea if such
an incident had taken place.
The game seemed to progress in Leicester’s
favour and they never gave up the attack, despite being under huge pressure
from a West Ham side who could clearly smell blood. But Wes Morgan was judged
to have pushed Winston Reid as a corner was swung in by Payet, and Mr Moss pointed
to the spot.
Andy Carroll, relaxed and professional,
planted the penalty in the right hand corner, sending Kasper Schmeichel the
wrong way.
And from there, the game lit up.
West Ham continued to press, and the home
side held on well and even escaped on several counter attacks. But just three
minutes after Carroll equalised, an Antonio cross dropped to Aaron Cresswell on
the Hammers’ left wing, and with a beautiful stroke, the defender volleyed the
ball past a desperate Schmeichel into the top right hand corner.
As Leicester fans started to file out, and
the four minutes of added time wound down, Andy Carroll, once the West Ham
hero, brought down Schlupp in the penalty area. Perhaps the contact was
minimal, but the Leicester fans I spoke to after the final whistle saw the decision
as retribution for what they believe was the unfair dismissal of their striker
Vardy. In post-match interviews, Carroll made it clear that he also believed the decision to Moss's attempt at levelling the game after such an important sending off.
Up stood Leonardo Ulloa and blasted
the ball past the talented Adrian. 90+5 minutes gone, and almost literally the final
act of play.
2-2. A worthy draw, but surely frustrating
for both camps as the sending off utterly changed the game, and even with an
extra man, West Ham couldn’t finish off what would have been an important win
in their charge for the Europa League.
