Leicester City moved to the top of the Championship with a late victory over Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium.
Steffy Mavididi scored in the 87th minute as the Foxes finally broke through the visitors' strong resistance.
Keiynan Dewsbury-Hall opened the scoring for Leicester, but Jay Stansfield equalized just before half-time.
Enzo Maresca's breakthrough promotion puts them on par with Ipswich and Leeds, who both lost, while defeat means Birmingham slip into the relegation zone.
Dewsbury-Hall was heavily involved early on and almost found Emmanuel Aiu's own goal with a cross, but Blues goalkeeper John Ruddy blocked it.
The midfielder scored his 12th goal of the season after receiving a feed from Patson Daka.
The visitors almost hit back when Krystian Bielik fired wide from close range, but Daka at the other end was denied by Rudy.
Stansfield tied it just before the break with his second goal in a week. He pounced on a clearance from Foxes goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and deflected the ball into the net.
Just five minutes after the break, Wilfried Ndidi almost restored Leicester's lead, but Rudy parried the midfielder's header from Mavididi's cross.
A few minutes later, Ruddy was called upon to come on again, diving to block Fatau's shot, and as Leicester's nerves began to rise, second-half substitute Jamie Vardy fired a header wide of the target.
Both teams exchanged chances in pursuit of a winner, but it was Mavididi who made the decisive intervention, heading substitute Yunus Akgun's cross at the back post to put the Foxes at the top of the Championship. lead.
Leicester manager Enzo Maresca told BBC Radio Leicester.: “Once again, I think the team created chances. We just had to find the second one. At times we struggled and conceded the second one in transition, but we controlled the game very well.”
“When you're out there and you're struggling to score, you think you can't win the game. The team was great and I think in the end we totally deserved to win the game.”
“I told them at halftime to be very patient. In the second half we were even better. The team is playing well, but in the last 10 minutes we played even better.”
“I'm happy for Steffy. He could become even more important for us. We're focused on Tuesday now.”
Birmingham interim manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio WM.: “When you come to a place like Leicester, you realize that such a good team has a lot of possession and you have to accept that sometimes important moments don't go your way.
“We need a little more bravery and quality of possession. So we found it difficult to maintain the time of possession. We may have been a bit tired in the second half so we needed to put in a lot of time. We have to watch the games and what we can't do is keep conceding goals in the late stages because we will definitely get a lot of points at the beginning of May.
“We have to make sure we're doing everything we can to get our teammates out of trouble. You saw a lot of great work. It was disappointing, but we showed a lot of good things. .Our season will not be defined by things like “Leicester are away.'' ”
lineup
leicester
formation 4-3-3
- 30hermansen
- twenty oneRicardo Pereira
- 3FesBooked in 34 minutes
- twenty threeVestergoat
- FivedoyleReplacementjustinin 45 minutesminutes
- twenty fiveNdidiReplacementPratoin 82 minutesminutes
- 8wink
- twenty twoDewsbury Hall
- 18FatauReplacementAkgunin 81 minutesminutes
- 20DakaReplacementVardyin 60 minutesminutes
- TenmavididiBooked in 89 minutesReplacementcodyin 90+6'minutes
substitute
- 2justin
- Fourcody
- 9Vardy
- 14Iheanacho
- 17chowdhury
- 26Prato
- 29Akgun
- 40marsal madibadua
- 41stralczyk
birmingham
formation 4-2-3-1
- twenty oneRudy
- 2Laird
- 44Love Crow
- Fivesanderson
- 3buchanan
- 13Baek Seungho
- 6BielikBooked for 57 minutesReplacementSeungjikin 58 minutesminutes
- 11MiyoshiReplacementandersonin 58 minutesminutes
- 19jamesI made a reservation for 19 minutes.ReplacementDembelein 81 minutesminutes
- 7BakunaReplacementpritchardin 58 minutesminutes
- 28StansfieldReplacementhoganin 80 minutesminutes
substitute
- 1Etheridge
- 8Roberts
- 9hogan
- 12Dorame
- 14anderson
- 17Dembele
- 20gardner
- 29pritchard
- 34Seungjik
- Referee:
- david webb
- Attendance:
- 31,825
live text
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Game over, Leicester City 2, Birmingham City 1.
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End of the second half, Leicester City 2, Birmingham City 1.
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Leicester City corner. Dion Sanderson gave up a goal.
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Substitute, Leicester City. Conor Coady replaces Steffy Mavididi.
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Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) wins a free kick in defence.
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Foul on Siriki Dembele (Birmingham City).
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Foul on Steffy Mavididi (Leicester City).
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Ethan Laird (Birmingham City) wins a free kick in defence.
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Steffy Mavididi (Leicester City) was shown a yellow card for excessive celebration.
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goal! Leicester City 2, Birmingham City 1. Steffy Mavididi (Leicester City) headed a shot from the left side of his six-yard box into the top right corner. Yunus Akgün assists the cross.
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Attempt saved. Scott Hogan (Birmingham City) took a left-footed shot from a difficult angle on the left flank, which was saved into the bottom left corner.
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Attempt saved. Alex Pritchard (Birmingham City) took a right-footed shot from outside the box that was saved into the bottom left corner. Supported by Scott Hogan.
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Attempt saved. Steffi Mavididi (Leicester City) fired a right-footed shot from the left of the box that was saved into the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jamie Vardy.
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Substitute, Leicester City. Dennis Prato replaces Wilfred Ndidi.
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Substitute, Leicester City. Abdul Fataw was replaced by Yunus Akgün.
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Substitute, Birmingham City. Siriki Dembele replaces Jordan James.
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Substitute, Birmingham City. Scott Hogan replaces Jay Stansfield.
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Wout Faes (Leicester City) wins a free kick inside the defence.
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Foul on Jay Stansfield (Birmingham City).
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Attempt blocked. Steffi Mavididi (Leicester City)'s right-footed shot from outside the box was blocked. Supported by James Justin.