Villa, Brighton and Leeds registered wins on Tuesday at the cost of Leicester, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest respectively.
Evan Ferguson has struck again. The young striker helped Brighton & Hove Albion with a beautiful heel on the way to three points: when visiting Bournemouth, it even became 0-2 in stoppage time after his opening goal. The Seagulls can therefore even dream of the Champions League. Bournemouth is under the line.
The same goes for Leicester City. The Foxes were down to ten men and thus lost to Aston Villa in the final phase. Ex-Ajax player Bertrand Traoré delivered the verdict: 1-2. Leeds United secured an incredibly important victory in the battle of retention as Nottingham Forest went 2-1 over the knee at Elland Road.
Leicester City 1-2 Aston Villa
Midway through the first half, Ollie Watkins scored for Villa. The striker was sent deep by Emiliano Buendia and tapped the ball past goalkeeper Daniel Iversen into the corner. Leicester, under interim manager Adam Sadler following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers, fought back. Wout Faes, who turned 25 on Monday, played Harvey Barnes who made it 1-1.
The 2016 champions needed three points at home to move out of the relegation zone, but a difficult mission was made much more difficult in the second half after a second yellow card for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. The most painful thing is that Leicester just wanted to replace him. A substitution that actually took place hurt even more: Traoré was on the field for just two minutes when he scored the winning goal. A huge blow for the home team, who then saw a penalty withdrawn by the VAR and therefore left the field without points.
AFC Bournemouth 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Let’s pay attention to Evan Ferguson. The young Irishman quickly distinguished himself in this south coast derby with a delightful opening goal, he got the ball and rolled it into the corner with a wonderful heel. That was also enough for three points, only in injury time it became 0-2 via Julio Enciso. Brighton are sixth and can really still participate in Champions League football. Bournemouth must especially fear relegation.
Leeds United 2-1 Nottingham Forest
At Elland Road, Orel Mangala gave the visitors the lead in this game of traditional clubs. It was Mangala’s first goal in English football, and given the importance of this game, it was not wrongly timed. They could not enjoy their lead for long: Jack Harrison fired in a rebound, and just before half-time Luis Sinisterra completed a great action with the 2-1 for the home team. After the break, Javi Gracia’s team held on to the lead: three very important points.
