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Norwich vs Leicester City
Live on NBCSN Friday at 3 PM ET
With both sides winless in their last four games, this match certainly seems like a bit of a crossroads for each team. Leicester could see their chances for a spot in Europe slip if they don’t get this right on Friday, and Norwich could end up further than 7 points adrift from safety.
Norwich
The Canaries have a very entertaining brand of football, but when you’ve allowed twice as many goals as you’ve scored all season, it doesn’t much matter how pretty it’s looked. If you happen to remember the last time these two met, it signaled the end of the Foxes incredible form, but was also only the second result away from home Norwich have managed. They sat back on the counter and worked it beautifully and arguably should’ve come away with all three points. Teemu Pukki 26th minute opener was cancelled out by a Tim Krul “own goal” but was actually a wonderful corner routine capped off by a Jamie Vardy header.
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Leicester City
Without going into much detail about the highway robbery that occurred in the last match, the Foxes looked much more themselves in their efforts and display. You could sense for the first time in a while everyone knew their role and gave maximum effort. If they put the same effort into this away game, they could really get their offensive groove back.
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Pundits everywhere are hellbent on predicting this is the match that Vardy ends his goal drought, and I hope they’re right. He has been so close the past couple of weeks you can almost feel the pressure coming off him when he narrowly misses. Thankfully, even through his drop of form, he has managed to play well and play in other players. Harvey Barnes and Kelechi Iheanacho have played well with him and could find themselves on the scoresheet on Friday.
Prediction
Brendan Rodgers has a bit of a selection headache with the return of Hamza Choudhury. Dennis Praet had an amazing game against Manchester City and could play once more in a CDM role. I’m not opposed to it given he had a 100% passing rate and he could move the ball faster than Hamza would, but he doesn’t have quite the same qualities that Hamza could provide. Regardless, Leicester must go out with the intention to boss the match and leave with all three points. I believe they get it across the line, 2-1.