Leicester City vs West Bromwich Albion. Premier League.
The King Power StadiumAttendance30,203.
Tuesday 17 October 2017 08:29, UK
Riyad Mahrez's first Premier League goal of the season rescued a point for Leicester in their 1-1 draw with West Brom on Monday Night Football.
The Algerian made amends for an earlier miss to equalise with 10 minutes left, but Leicester could not find the winner which would have moved them out of the bottom three.
Nacer Chadli had fired West Brom ahead from a free-kick (63) which left Kasper Schmeichel rooted to the spot.
The draw leaves Leicester 18th and without a win since August, while West Brom move up to 10th despite seeing their winless run extend to seven games in all competitions.
After a sluggish start, West Brom eked out a first opportunity when Kieran Gibbs picked out Chadli on the edge of the area, but the midfielder could only scuff his effort wide.
With Ben Foster out, Boaz Myhill was making his first league start since 2016, and the West Brom goalkeeper got down well to keep out Danny Simpson's sweetly-struck volley from just inside the box.
Leicester ended the first half with a flourish, but could not find the breakthrough as Christian Fuchs volleyed his effort into the ground and Jamie Vardy was nudged away from Marc Albrighton's low cross.
Vardy came within inches of earning Leicester a penalty early in the second half, but referee Mike Dean deemed Myhill's foul to have occurred outside the area - Harry Maguire saw his header from the resulting free-kick blocked.
Mahrez missed a gilt-edged chance moments later, firing over from 10 yards out despite being under no pressure on his left foot.
The hosts were made to pay for that miss as West Brom took the lead when Chadli's free-kick left Schmeichel rooted to the spot.
Chadli's first goal since February allowed West Brom to sit back, and Leicester took full advantage when Mahrez slotted home from substitute Islam Slimani's knock-down.
Leicester searched for a winner but West Brom held firm to pick up first point on the road since August.
Craig Shakespeare: "We finished on the front foot after changing shape. We got a response and gave it everything. Bit laboured first half. We worked in training on breaking them down in that setting, but a game is different. We were resilient to fight back."
Tony Pulis: "It's happened to us a few times this year, where we've been leading and let it slip. But as I've said before it's a tough league, every team that you play, if you take the top six out, there's not a lot between them."
"Credit to Craig Shakespeare. He bought Slimani on to give Leicester two up front alongside Vardy, and he also put Mahrez in a more central position.
"Yes, they got a bit of luck [for the equaliser] but they wouldn't normally have a player where Mahrez was for the finish in their normal 4-4-2. It would normally have been too high up for their midfielders."
In a tightly-fought encounter at the King Power, Albrighton was a constant outlet for Leicester out wide and would perhaps have benefited more had Slimani been introduced earlier into the match.
Leicester head to Swansea on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off, while West Brom travel to Southampton later on Saturday evening for another round of Premier League action.
