Soccer-Newcastle stun Leicester but secure safety

LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – Callum Wilson’s brace helped Newcastle United to a 4-2 win away to Leicester City on Friday that secured their Premier League survival and left the hosts looking over their shoulders in the race for the top four. completion.

Third-placed Leicester’s night got off to a bad start when defender Jonny Evans was injured in the warm-up. It deteriorated quickly when a mistake by Caglar Soyuncu allowed Joe Willock to put Newcastle ahead after 22 minutes with his fourth goal in his last four games.

Martin Dubravka made a couple of crucial saves for Steve Bruce’s side before Paul Dummett doubled their lead with a powerful header after 34 minutes.

Leicester, who play in next weekend’s FA Cup final against Chelsea, never really got going and there seemed no way back when Wilson made it 3-0 on the counter-attack in the 64th minute and stabbed his fourth team 10 minutes later.

Marc Albrighton and Kelechi Iheanacho scored late goals and Dubravka pulled off a sensational save from Ayoze Perez as Leicester threatened an unlikely comeback.

However, it was too late to prevent an eighth league defeat at home to open the door to the teams below them.

Leicester have 63 points with three games remaining, two more than Chelsea and five more than West Ham United.

Newcastle have climbed to 13th place with 39 points from 35 games and are 12 points clear of third-bottom Fulham, who have four games in hand.

“It’s going to be hard for teams to catch us now. It’s a massive step in the right direction,” Dummett said.

Although Leicester are still well placed to finish in the top four, their last three league games are against Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur and there are fears that, like last season, they could miss out.

“We made so many mistakes and you can’t afford to do that,” Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers said. “It’s a time of the season where you have to be super focused but we lacked focus and when you do that against good players they will punish you and that’s what happened.”

The loss of Evans was inconvenient, but it should not have led to Leicester’s defensive collapse.

Newcastle could have scored three times before they scored, Kasper Schmeichel making an outstanding save to keep out Allan Saint-Maximin’s eye-popping effort.

Soyuncu then lost possession in a dangerous area and Willock, on loan from Arsenal, raced over to score.

Dubravka denied Iheanacho before Leicester’s defense was breached again when Dummett headed in Matt Richie’s corner.

Jamie Vardy looked set to halve the deficit on the stroke of half-time when he went clear but his attempted lob was stopped by a flying Dubravka.

Leicester pushed ahead after the break but were caught on the break in the 64th minute when Ritchie’s pass released Wilson, who coolly rounded Schmeichel before sliding home.

Wilson then tapped in a rebound after his initial effort hit the woodwork.

There were some late nerves for Newcastle though and had Dubravka not blocked Perez’s effort in stoppage time it could have turned ugly, but they held on to secure a third win in five games.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)