Newcastle-Leicester is a match valid for the thirty-seventh day of the Premier League and is played on Monday at 9 pm: TV, predictions.
Newcastle is now one step away from the Champions dream, Leicester on the other hand is called upon to win at all costs to avoid relegation. This can be summed up as the postponement that closes the program of a Premier League that, after Manchester City’s triumph, has yet to deliver some important verdicts. The first, in terms of qualification for the cup with the big ears, could come as early as tonight at St James’ Park.
Eddie Howe’s men, refreshed by the news of Liverpool’s home draw – the only team that could still steal one of the top four places from them – against Aston Villa, need only one point to get the party started: it has been since the 2002-03 season, exactly 20 years ago, that Newcastle has not participated in Europe’s most important football event. Beating Leicester would make the Bianconeri unreachable for the Reds, who have three fewer points but with one more game. Theoretically, Bruno Guimaraes and his teammates could even afford to lose the next two matches and still qualify thanks to a better goal difference – quite substantial – against Jurgen Klopp’s team: in fact, the Magpies currently have a seven-goal advantage. The Champions League, in short, is nothing more than a formality for a Newcastle that has just returned from its bombastic 4-1 victory against Brighton and that in front of its own public has barely lost two games, surrendering only to Liverpool and Arsenal.
Newcastle, with one point you are in the Champions
On the other side we have a team, Leicester, which is practically at the bottom of its game and is in danger of relegating to the Championship after its so-called golden decade.
Vardy
The Foxes are second-to-last with 30 points, and the defeat suffered by Leeds in London yesterday against West Ham was certainly good news for Dean Smith and his men, who in the event of a win against Newcastle would bypass the Whites and join Everton, another team still in contention, at 33 points but with a worse goal difference. A draw, on the other hand, would serve very little purpose, since on the final day Everton would be masters of their own destiny against a Bournemouth side that has nothing more to ask of its league. But there are very few signs that suggest a win for Leicester, which was heavily defeated in its last two outings by Fulham and Liverpool, racking up a combined eight goals.
The Prediction
Leicester has no other result at its disposal than victory and will have to necessarily try to win against a Newcastle that needs a point to celebrate its return to the Champions League. The Bianconeri, at the same time, should have no problem piercing a sieve defense, which on only one occasion in the last four days has conceded less than two goals. Magpies favored in a challenge of at least three goals total.
The likely Newcastle-Leicester lineups
- NEWCASTLE (4-3-3): Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Anderson, Bruno Guimaraes, Almiron; Saint-Maximin, Wilson, Gordon.
- LEICESTER (4-2-3-1): Iversen; Pereira, Evans, Souttar, Castagne; Ndidi, Soumaré; Tete, Maddison, Barnes; Iheanacho.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 3-1
