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Sports

Manager Claudio Ranieri Weeps With Pride After Leicester Clinches Champions League

Oh, it's the Foxes to lose alright.

They're calling it the greatest underdog story in the history of sports, and to be honest, they're not too far off. The English Premier League is a viciously hierarchical system of shifting tiers, billions of pounds, and talent defined over lifetimes. And yet here we have this little team, two years fresh off of promotion, who were set at 5000-to-1 odds of topping the Premier League table, and they're fucking doing it my friends. It's enough to make a grown man weep for joy. And so he did: Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri, that is.

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Today's match was remarkable for a couple of reasons. Sure, a win over Sunderland is practically a weekly occurrence for most teams, but this secured Leicester a 10-point lead over second place Tottenham (albeit for a brief moment, with Spurs absolutely dismantling Manchester United). Then there's the fact that it locked the Foxes into Champions League for next year. It's a glorious day for them.

The man of the match was hands-down Jamie Vardy, who made a meal of two spectacular runs. Here's the first, chased down after a long ball catches him perfectly in pace to humiliate the Sunderland keeper.

The second goal came on a similar solo run, where Vardy caught a whole defensive line sleeping with a sharp run (bowling over a defender, mind you) to send in the goal with a soft touch.

Just look at Ranieri's excitement.

You know a win is significant enough when your opponents' fans stick around to celebrate you:

Substantial number of Sunderland fans staying behind to applaud Leicester off the pitch.
— Rory Smith (@RorySmithTimes) April 10, 2016

So go ahead and have a weep, Ranieri. You certainly deserve it.