Leicester 2 - 2 MiddlesbroughIslam Slimani penalty rescues draw for Leicester with Middlesbrough
Home team scorersRiyad Mahrez 34 Pen
Islam Slimani 90 +3:36 Pen
Away team scorersAlvaro Negredo 13
Alvaro Negredo 71
Two penalties, the second in stoppage time, saved Leicester from a second successive home defeat and dealt a cruel blow to Middlesbrough. Two goals from Alvaro Negredo, one either side of a successful spot kick by Riyad Mahrez, had put Middlesbrough on the brink of a precious win but the visitors were denied when Islam Slimani converted a penalty following a late foul on Wes Morgan by Marten de Roon.
Leicester were blunt and laboured for most of the afternoon but the equaliser rewarded the late summoning of a defiant spirit that had been missing for most of a game that Middlesbrough will feel unlucky not to have won. Having marched into the last 16 of the Champions League in midweek Leicester fairly crawled to a draw here and must be thankful that they remain two points above the Premier League’s bottom three.
Middlesbrough started as if the King Power was their estate, swaggering about with the confidence of a team that had lost only one league game on the road this season and could sense the vulnerability of their hosts. They passed better and pressed harder than the champions, whose impotence in the face of such uppityness was remarkable.
Adam Clayton pulled the strings cleverly for Middlesbrough in midfield, the way no one was doing for Leicester in the absence of Danny Drinkwater. But it was Adama Traoré’s trickery that led to the first chance. With a shimmer and a dash the winger ghosted between Christian Fuchs and Marc Albrighton in the ninth minute and lashed over a cross that Ron-Robet Zieler only parried. The ball came to Marten De Roon, who tried to guide it into the corner of the net from 16 yards but got his calculations fractionally wrong.
It did not take long for Middlesbrough to correct that. Four minutes later Negredo swept a pass wide to Gaston Ramirez on the left, and the Uruguayan cantered forward before sending in a return pass to the striker, who had made his way into the box. Negredo’s connection with the ball was impure but nowhere near as slovenly as Leicester’s tracking. The ball flew past Zieler and into the net for Negredo’s first goal since the opening day of the season.
There was no immediate reaction from Leicester. Ranieri’s men continued to look hungover as Boro made merry around them, passing with an accuracy that Leicester could not match on the rare occasions they got the ball. The home team’s only threat came from long throw-ins by Fuchs. Then, on the half hour, a flash of magic by Mahrez woke Leicester up.
The Algerian shimmied his way down the right and then clipped a nice cross to Shinji Okazaki, who very nearly applied an appropriately delectable finish. But his overhead kick from seven yards ricocheted out off the top off the crossbar.
Then luck smiled on Leicester, which is to say that Lee Mason pointed to the spot for a penalty that should not have been given. There was no doubt that Callum Chambers handled the ball when it was lofted into the box by Danny Simpson, but that was because he had been shoved in the back by Wes Morgan. Mason missed that, but Mahrez made no mistake with the penalty, shooting low and hard into the net off the post.
The goal acted as an elixir for Leicester. They looked like overwhelming their prey before the break and would have scored in the 41st minute following cut play by Okazaki and Mahrez if Ramirez had not made a superb intervention to nick the ball off the toe of Jamie Vardy six yards from goal. Vardy must not have seen Ramirez coming, which was apt given that he himself had been nigh-on invisible up to that point.
He was not seen again until the 64th minute, when he was booked for a late tackle on Clayton. Straight after that he was substituted, with Islam Slimani entering in his place. Soon after Mahrez made way too, Ahmed Musa introduced in his place. Leicester created little. Okazaki and Musa had shots from the edge of the area, one easily saved and the other sliced wide.
Then came’s Boro cutting retort. Adam Forshaw dropped a splendid pass over the Leicester defence from inside his own half and, with Fuchs and Robert Huth caught out, Negredo ran on to it and swept the bouncing ball past Zieler from a tight ankle.
As the clock ticked down to a second home league defeat in a row for a team that had until recently been unbeaten here for over a year, Leicester finally began to trigger real panic in the Boro box. It told just in time, De Roon’s frazzled nerves forcing him into a rash tackle on Morgan. This time there was no debating the penalty decision. And Slimani’s execution of the verdict was merciless.
Guardian
