LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – Jamie Vardy scored twice on his return to the starting lineup as Leicester City moved into the top half of the Premier League table with a 3-0 home win over relegated Norwich City on Wednesday.
The largely meaningless match, with the Foxes out of contention for the European places but safe from relegation while Norwich were already condemned to the drop, ended Leicester’s run of seven games without a victory.
Leicester, now 10th and a point ahead of Crystal Palace, were dominant but Teemu Pukki came close for the visitors when he hit the post in first-half stoppage time.
Vardy then broke the ice in the 54th with a deflected right-footed shot from the left of the box and made it 2-0 in the 62nd before James Maddison scored the third in the 70th against his former club.
Norwich, now on five straight league defeats and rooted to the bottom, dropped Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul for Angus Gunn in one of four changes to the side that lost 4-0 at home to West Ham United on Sunday.
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers also rang the changes after the 2-1 home defeat to Everton last weekend.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)
