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LONDON. — Son Heung-min’s thunderous finish helped Tottenham Hotspur secure a 2-0 victory at Leicester City and Liverpool eased past fourth-tier Exeter City 3-0 in FA Cup third-round replays on Wednesday night.

Son, who rifled home the opening goal after 39 minutes, set up Nacer Chadli for the second with a beautiful pass in the second half as the eight-times Cup winners eased through against surprise English Premier League soccer high-flyers Leicester.

Liverpool scored early through Joe Allen, but then made heavy weather of their lower league opponents and did not add to their lead until substitute Sheyi Ojo curled home superbly.

Joao Teixeira rounded off a comfortable victory for Juergen Klopp’s side with a neat near-post finish eight minutes from time.

After the first meeting between Tottenham and Leicester had ended in a thrilling 2-2 draw and with both teams harbouring hopes of challenging for the Premier League title, their managers showed where the FA Cup ranks in their priorities.

Both made a raft of changes to the sides they fielded at the weekend and left out their principal attacking weapons, with Jamie Vardy warming the Leicester bench for most of the match and Harry Kane starting on the sidelines for Spurs.

The game began at a pedestrian pace and only sprang to life after 39 minutes when Son finished emphatically, thumping the ball into the top corner past Kasper Schmeichel as the Leicester defence retreated.

Demarai Gray tested Spurs keeper Michel Vorm at the start of the second half with a curling effort, but Leicester struggled to find any momentum and fell further behind after 66 minutes.

The ball found its way through to Son, who slid a perfectly-weighted through ball for Chadli to calmly finish past Schmeichel and round off a pleasing display for Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino.

“The performance was fantastic,” he told the BBC. “We played well from the beginning to the end. I think we deserved this victory.”

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri meanwhile sought comfort in his team’s record against Tottenham Hotspur this season after the Foxes were knocked out of the FA Cup by their north London opponents on Wednesday night.

“It’s fantastic,” Ranieri told the club website of his team’s record against Spurs.

“It’s a minimum of 10 years that Tottenham are building their team to reach the Europa League and Champions League zone. We’ve just started our journey and we are fighting with them.

“I think we’ve made a very fantastic step, because in four matches against Tottenham, we’ve won one, lost one and drawn two.”

The Italian said Tottenham were deserved winners on the night, but pointed out that Leicester were more focused on the Premier League, where they sit in second place, five points and two places above Spurs. — Reuters.