Hodgson’s Palace halts slide, beats Leicester on late winner

LONDON

Crystal Palace earned its first victory of 2023 after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s stoppage-time strike gave Roy Hodgson’s team a 2-1 win over Leicester in the Premier League. Hodgson returned to his former team after Patrick Vieira was fired and Palace halted a 12-game winless slide in the league in dramatic fashion. In the fourth minute of stoppae time at Selhurst Park, substitute Mateta received a pass from Jordan Ayew, turned and fired a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Daniel Iversen. Leicester substitute Ricardo Pereira opened the scoring in the 56th minute. Three minutes later it was 1-1 after an own-goal. Leicester has lost five of its last six games and Saturday’s defeat drops Brendan Rodgers’ team into the relegation zone.