Watford rally to beat Leicester as Abdoulaye Doucoure forces crucial error from Kasper Schmeichel

Watford got their pride back at Vicarage Road, winning for the first time in seven games and ending a run of four defeats with a display of heart and effort. Leicester had won four of their previous six games but gave up a first-half lead far too carelessly and could not force an equaliser despite plenty of late pressure.

Riyad Mahrez put Leicester ahead after 37 minutes with his sixth league goal of the season but Malian defender Molla Wague, making his first Premier League start on loan to Watford from Udinese, equalised just before the interval.

Abdoulaye Doucoure, returning after a one-match suspension, put Watford ahead after 65 minutes with some help from Kasper Schmeichel, the Leicester goalkeeper.

The Leicester team looked more potent than that of Watford, who were still without their suspended striker and talisman, Troy Deeney. In his absence and with little evidence of Andre Gray finding any sort of form, the Brazilian Richarlison was tried in an unfamiliar lone forward role.

Watford wanted to prove themselves to their home fans early on, but took the determination too far, earning two yellow cards in the opening quarter of an hour, both central midfield players – Ben Watson and the returning Doucoure – going into the book for fouls.

But it was Leicester who had the first meaningful effort at goal, a looping header by Shinji Okazaki from a cross by Ben Chilwell that had to be fingertipped over the crossbar by Heurelho Gomes, the Watford goalkeeper and captain. Gomes had been at fault with Brighton’s winner on Saturday and would have been keen to make amends.

But he should have been beaten after 25 minutes. Marc Albrighton, sporting a head bandage after an earlier injury, played a superbly-weighted pass through the defence with the outside of his right foot, sending Jamie Vardy clear. He sped away from the defenders and attempted to lift the ball over the advancing Gomes. The net rippled, but although the visiting fans immediately saluted a goal, the ball had gone the wrong side of the post and Vardy cursed himself.

Watford took heart from that lucky escape and Doucoure had a fierce shot blocked by Harry Maguire, while Andre Carrillo began to look dangerous on the right. But when the breakthrough came after 37 minutes, it was Leicester who made it. Okazaki played Albrighton in down the left and although Daryl Janmaat prevented the winger from crossing with his left foot, Albrighton checked back onto his right and sent the ball onto the head of Mahrez, who headed back across Gomes. The goalkeeper got his fingers to the ball, but the header was simply too well-placed to keep out.

Watford could have levelled minutes later when Carrillo, more central, slipped Ricahrlison in. The Brazilian rounded Kasper Schmeichel but had left himself with an impossibly narrow angle from which to shoot and hit the outside of the near post.

But in the final minute of the first half it was 1-1. Leicester failed to clear a corner from the left and the ball bounced off Wes Morgan to Wague, who shot in off Schmeichel. And it was nearly, improbably, 2-1 before the interval as Tom Cleverley set up Richarlison for a shot that beat Schmeichel low past his right hand but cannoned back off the foot of his near post.

Leicester regrouped and Mahrez’s low cross from the right only just evaded the onrushing Vardy, but they were behind twenty minutes into the second half when Schmeichel stayed on his line as Cleverley sent a free kick beyond the far post. Doucoure met it with his left foot and Schmeichel’s touch only helped the ball across the line and in.

Cleverley might have made sure when he robbed Chilwell only to shoot past the far post. Instead, Watford needed Gomes to save twice in a minute late on from Wes Morgan and substitute Leonardo Ulloa.

Teams

Watford (4-2-3-1): Gomes; Janmaat, Wague, Kabasele, Zeegelar; Doucoure, Watson {Prodl 86); Carrillo (Sinclair 89), Cleverley, Pereyra 5 (Okaka 44); Richarlison Booked: Watson, Kabasele

Leicester City (4-4-1-1): Schmeichel; Dragovic (Gray 73), Morgan, Maguire, Chilwell; Mahrez, Ndidi, King (Ulloa 84), Albrighton; Okazaki (Slimani 73); Vardy.

Booked: Maguire.

Referee: C Kavanagh (Manchester)