Football
2017/2018 English Premier League
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ESPN staff 6y

Tottenham toppled by Leicester's Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez

Tottenham Hotspur's hopes of returning to the Premier League top four were dashed as they lost 2-1 at Leicester, who rose to ninth in the table thanks to fine finishes from Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez.

Leicester were rapidly out of the blocks, threatening after only five minutes when Ben Chilwell crossed and the ball was worked back to Wilfried Ndidi, whose strike lacked sufficient power.

Minutes later, the home side showed their menace on the break as Vardy charged forward to win a corner and, from it, Wes Morgan's header was scrambled off the line by Danny Rose.

And with 13 minutes played they had a deserved lead, Vardy scoring his 100th league goal in style with a delicate lob over Hugo Lloris from Marc Albrighton's fine cross.

Spurs were struggling to get going as Leicester set the tempo, but they almost levelled when Kasper Schmeichel got a touch to Mousa Sissoko's shot and Vicente Iborra cleared off the line.

After 23 minutes, Harry Kane set off on a twisting run but saw his ambitious attempt to curl the ball past Schmeichel from the edge of the area fly high.

With half an hour gone, the Londoners came close again when Christian Eriksen played in Dele Alli, but Schmeichel did well to block.

Eriksen then went close from range -- but, in first-half stoppage time, Spurs were two down as Mahrez drifted in from the right to give Lloris no chance with a brilliant curling effort.

Ten minutes into the second half it was almost three as another sharp move saw Chilwell and Vardy find Albrighton, whose cross was headed narrowly over by Shinji Okazaki.

Spurs took off Sissoko for Son Heung-Min and replaced Mousa Dembele with Fernando Llorente, but Mauricio Pochettino's team were struggling to find a way through as the clock ticked towards the final quarter of an hour.

All that changed with 11 minutes to go as Erik Lamela, in his first Spurs game for 13 months, found Kane and the striker blasted high past Schmeichel.

And as Leicester dropped ever deeper into defence, Serge Aurier's cross should have been finished off by Llorente, who blasted over from close range.

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