adminLeicester City manager Claudio Ranieri was emotional after his side beat Sunderland 2-0 to go 10 points clear at the top of the Premier League table.
Jamie Vardy scored twice to continue Leicester’s incredible season and put them on the brink of sealing the most remarkable title in Premier League history, seeing the Italian reduced to tears on the pitch.
“We knew it would be tough, it’s normal because Sunderland are fighting to be safe, but I’m very happy for the three points,” Ranieri told BBC Sport. “Our performance was very solid, of course they had the chance to draw but we had three or four chances to finish it early.
“It’s important for Jamie Vardy to score because he made some good assists in the last game but he’s our goalscorer and he needed to score again and I’m very happy with him.
“The fans must continue to dream but we must continue to be concentrated and focused. Now we’ve two tough matches at home, the Champions League is on the table and we’ve to keep it. We don’t achieve nothing yet.
“We’ve to stay calm, be focused, strong, solid and keep going. You make this job for the emotion you feel inside but it’s difficult for me to tell what kind of emotion. Today we made some mistakes, we still have to look at what’s not right.”
Vardy added: “Coming off the Sunderland fans were clapping us as well which is brilliant. It was a great game, we knew it would be tough but managed to grind it out. It’s a step closer to possibly winning the league. We’ll enjoy this for the rest of the day and then get back to training for the next week.”
Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce admitted he was disappointed that his side could not put up more of a fight.
“We were nervous today because of how big the game is. It’s a legacy of not picking up the points when we should have done,” he said. “That caused us to do the wrong things to try and get back in the game.
“We didn’t pass it anywhere near as well as we can. I think that was the main problem, not Leicester.
“We kept losing the ball in good areas, it was nothing like the passing game we showed against West Brom. We switched off once and our defence allows Jamie Vardy to do what’s his major strength.
“He does what every top goalscorer does and scores it. The disappointing thing was how we reacted to that.”
Leicester City have officially qualified for European football next season following their 2-0 win over Sunderland.
The victory at the Stadium of Light took Claudio Ranieri’s men onto 72 points, meaning they now cannot finish any lower than fifth in the Premier League which books a place in the group stage of the Europa League.
The Foxes last played in Europe in the 2000-01 UEFA Cup, and have never previously gone beyond the first round in continental competition in three campaigns.
Their debut appearance came in the 1961-62 European Cup Winners’ Cup, when they beat Glenavon in the preliminary round before losing 3-1 on aggregate to Atletico Madrid in the first round. They then lost to Atletico again, 4-1 on aggregate, in the 1997-98 UEFA Cup.- BBC.
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