Late Own Goal Gifts Leicester City All Three Points
Leicester City came out on top in a five-goal thriller with Newcastle United thanks to a late own-goal from Ayoze Perez. Newcastle originally took the lead thanks to an early Joselu strike but goals from Riyad Mahrez and Demarai Grey flipped the fixture on its head.
Dwight Gayle looked to have earned Newcastle a point but Perez's own goal meant Newcastle left St James' Park empty-handed.
Newcastle took the lead within the opening five minutes of the contest. Jacob Murphy played a long ball over the top of the Leicester City defensive line and into the path of Dwight Gayle, the former Crystal Palace striker then phenomenally found Joselu, who slotted the ball past Kasper Schmeichel to give the Magpies an early lead.
Dwight Gayle was inches away from doubling the home side's lead just two minutes later. Mikel Moreno retrieved possession and played Gayle through on goal but Newcastle's top goal scorer last season fired his effort wide.
20 minutes into the match and Leicester were level. Riyad Mahrez picked the ball up around 25 yards out and unleashed a left-footed effort towards the Newcastle goal which beat Karl Darlow and gave the away side a deserved equalizer.
Newcastle were nearly gifted a second goal in the 36th minute when Ben Chilwell's awful pass across the edge of his own box was pounced on by Jacob Murphy, thankfully for the Foxes Schmeichel saved the ex Norwich winger's strike.
Following the interval, both teams had a sloppy start to the second period, however, with the first real chance of the half in the 60th minute Leicester were in front. Marc Albrighton cushioned Mahrez's pass into the path of Demarai Grey, the ball dropped nicely for the winger who lashed an effort into the top corner via a deflection off Florian Lejeune.
Spurred on by the home fans Newcastle pushed for an equaliser and following a corner that Leicester City just couldn't get clear and a very fortunate deflection they were back on square terms in the 73rd minute.
Dwight Gayle eventually received the ball in a packed Leicester box following a corner and this time Gayle made no mistake. His powerful low effort took a huge deflection off Harry Maguire and flew past the helpless Kasper Schmeichel.
Both clubs pushed for a winner and a decisive goal did come in the 86th minute in bizarre fashion. The Foxes unleashed a typically fierce counter-attack, which resulted in Jamie Vardy in a one on one race with Florian Lejeune.
The England international got to the ball first and picked out substitute Shinji Okazaki, who controlled the ball perfectly and looked certain to score. However, Ayoze Pérez in a desperate attempt to stop the Japanese striker from scoring, poked the ball past Karl Darlow to gift Leicester all three points and spark wild celebrations from the traveling fans.
