Leeds United spark twist for Preston North End and Leicester City as QPR deal huge blow

Leicester City will no longer be playing for promotion to the Premier League, against Preston North End on Monday night.

Leeds United ensured the Foxes’ celebrations could begin on Friday night, as Daniel Farke’s side were thrashed 4-0 at Queens Park Rangers. Marti Cifuentes’ team beat PNE 1-0 last weekend and backed that result up, to secure Championship safety. For Leeds, the defeat dealt a crushing blow to their automatic promotion hopes.

The door is now wide open for third placed Ipswich Town, who are one point behind Leeds - but with two fewer games played. The Tractor Boys have Hull City and Coventry City away next, before hosting Huddersfield Town on the final day. Leeds host fourth placed Southampton, in their final match of the campaign.

As for Leicester, though, it’s an immediate return to the top flight - under Enzo Maresca. The Foxes will reach 100 points if they win their final two games. And the first of those is away to PNE on Monday night, live on Sky Sports. Should Ipswich fail to beat Hull on Saturday, then Leicester can claim the Championship title with victory at Deepdale. North End are 10th at the time of writing and out of the play-off picture, but determined to finish the season, at home, on a high.

On facing Leicester, manager Ryan Lowe said: “We all want parties (for us) on our pitch and one day, hopefully that is the case. We want to avoid anyone having a party on our pitch, of course. So we have got to be at the races, do the right things, do the basics right and work hard. They are challenging to win the league... but we’ve got a bit of pride and passion to play for as well. We’ve got to play for our football club and our supporters.

“We’re at home - we’ve had a fantastic campaign this season at home and we want that to continue. We are coming up against a tough team which we know, but these are the games you play football for. I’m hoping our lads will be champing at the bit for it. We’ve had a few good days of training. We’ll continue that over the next few days. The lads are really looking forward to it.”