Leicester substitute Harvey Barnes scored in stoppage time to secure a controversial Premier League draw with West Ham in a frantic finish at London Stadium.
The Hammers looked on course for victory after Lucas Perez turned in the rebound when fellow replacement Pedro Obiang hit the post after 82 minutes.
The Spaniard should have had a second goal when he rounded Kasper Schmeichel after Obiang’s through ball but was wrongly called offside.
That allowed the visitors to sweep forward in search of another equaliser and Youri Tielemans picked out Barnes, who slotted low beyond Lukasz Fabianski for his first Leicester goal.
Winger Michail Antonio put West Ham ahead for the first time before the break, rising above Ben Chilwell to head in Mark Noble’s fine cross from the left.
Jamie Vardy levelled for the Foxes with his ninth goal in 10 league games thanks to an exquisite finish at the near post.
Leicester fall one place to eighth in the table, while West Ham remain 11th.
Leicester were mostly lacklustre for the first hour, occasionally looking bright on the counter but lacking a clinical edge, with James Maddison’s low drive that was easily saved their only chance of note.
Enter Vardy. The former England striker showed sharp instincts to get across Fabian Balbuena in a flash and divert Chilwell’s low cross beyond Fabianski.
Manager Brendan Rodgers told The Premier League Show this week that he wants to establish Leicester as a top-six side.
It will be intriguing to see how long 32-year-old Vardy remains part of that project as he gives his team a vital intensity and dependable goal threat they otherwise can lack at times.
There is plenty of young talent, though. Maddison was lively throughout, Barnes showed tremendous composure to slide in his late equaliser, set up by the creative Tielemans, whom Leicester must want to sign permanently once his loan deal from Monaco ends.
To become a perennial top-six side, Leicester will have to be more convincing against West Ham and other ambitious mid-table teams, but there are promising signs to build on.
After a run of three straight defeats, albeit including an unlucky loss to Manchester United last week, this was an encouraging performance by West Ham.
They were much the better side before the break, shifting the ball between the flanks to try and drag Leicester out of position, which paid off for the opener.
By applying pressure down the left, the hosts engineered a mismatch for Antonio on the much smaller Chilwell at the back post before Noble exchanged passes with Robert Snodgrass and picked out Antonio to firmly head in.
Antonio should have scored moments earlier when failing to turn in Marko Arnautovic’s volleyed cross from two yards, and West Ham may feel they should have put a subdued Leicester away in the first half.
Yet they continued to create and were ultimately denied by a mistake. Arnautovic and Snodgrass were withdrawn for Perez and Obiang, who combined to twice put the ball in the net, with only one counting.
Leicester appealed for offside for the first but Perez timed his run exactly to side-foot home after Obiang’s low, curling strike came back off the right-hand post.
In the game’s most controversial moment late on, Obiang nipped the ball off Tielemans and played in Perez, who did not see the flag as he rounded Schmeichel, with replays showing he was just behind the foot of the last Leicester defender.
Source: News365
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