Aston Villa 1 - 1 LeicesterAston Villa’s Rudy Gestede leaves Leicester regretting Riyad Mahrez miss
Home team scorers
Rudy Gestede 75
Away team scorers
Shinji Okazaki 28
Aston Villa’s Mark Bunn plunges to his right to instinctively block Riyad Mahrez’s penalty in the draw with Leicester City.
The best-selling thriller author and ardent Aston Villa fan Lee Child edited the programme for this match, and he must know that the result leaves his club in a predicament from which even Jack Reacher, the indomitable hero he created, would struggle to escape. But Villa’s never-say-die attitude, which enabled them to fight back against a Leicester team that went to the top of the league with the draw, at least showed the players still believe.
Leicester’s once-preposterous title dream remains alive, too, but Riyad Mahrez could have brought it a touch closer to reality by converting a first-half penalty that would have put the visitors two goals in front, Shinji Okazaki having given them the lead in the 28th minute. Instead the Villa goalkeeper, Mark Bunn, made a smart save to foil Mahrez from the spot and spur the home side into a revival. When Rudy Gestede equalised 15 minutes from time, it was no more than Rémi Garde’s team deserved.
Villa, showing a degree of slickness on top of their admirable mentality, then looked the more likely to snatch a winning goal. But they could not muster one and, owing to results elsewhere, ended the day nine points behind 17th-placed Newcastle, further from safety than they had been in the morning.
“I can see great spirit in the last two games, we have the right attitude to save this club from relegation,” said a defiant Garde. “We have 16 games to go, it’s not too late. It’s going to be very difficult but we are still believing and you saw that here.”
Having overseen a victory against Crystal Palace in midweek, the first win of his reign, Garde named an unchanged side for this match and Villa made the brisker start. But Leicester were the first to threaten, Jamie Vardy heading wide from a Marc Albrighton free-kick in the 13th minute.
Three minutes later the striker again got to the ball before any Villa player, this time chasing a flick-on before being upended by Bunn. The goalkeeper had charged out of his box expecting to beat the rapid striker to the ball, raising questions as to how closely he has been paying attention to Vardy’s feats this season. Fortunately for Bunn, the referee deemed a yellow card sufficient punishment. Bunn made the most of his reprieve by saving Albrighton’s ensuing free-kick.
Then Leicester enjoyed a let-off. Robert Huth dabbed a back-pass into the path of Libor Kozak, who ran clear on goal but shot weakly from 10 yards. Kasper Schmeichel saved and Kozak attempted to feed the rebound to Jordan Ayew but Wes Morgan intervened with a sliding tackle.
It was generally a tight game but Villa’s problem, in addition to a lack of balance and poor finishing, is that they can unravel at any moment. They did so here in the 28th minute and were made to pay. Vardy was allowed to run on to a punt from Schmeichel and aimed a delicate lob over Bunn, who backtracked well to claw it off the line. But Okazaki reacted faster than any defender to convert the rebound.
Leicester should have put Villa away four minutes later after Aly Cissokho blocked a shot by Mahrez with his arm. Mahrez tried to dupe the goalkeeper from the spot but Bunn improvised a fine save. “A second goal would have closed the game but the miss gave Villa new energy,” said Claudio Ranieri.
Two minutes after the penalty miss Ayew headed inches wide from an Ashley Westwood free-kick. Villa pieced together a nice move early in the second half but Schmeichel batted away a powerful shot from Ayew.
Leicester invited pressure, retreating deep to protect their lead while making space for the breaks at which they excel. That plan could have been undone on the hour, when Huth caught Kozak in the face with a swinging arm as he tried to cut out a cross into the box from Westwood. Villa demanded a penalty, the referee saw nothing awry.
Villa kept coming. Ayew dribbled brilliantly to the byline in the 65th minute before pulling the ball back to Leandro Bacuna, who failed to shoot with enough power to beat Schmeichel. Moments later Leicester nearly scored on the break, but Bunn denied Vardy.
Garde introduced Gestede alongside Kozak up front. Villa’s doggedness was soon rewarded when the powerful striker collected the ball at the edge of the area, barged past Huth and benefited from a slice of luck when his shot took a nick off Morgan and continued into the net. Villa deserved their equaliser, and went looking for a winner. But they came up just short.
Guardian