Leicester City 2-2 Brentford: Bees secure comeback draw at King Power Stadium
By Sean Walsh
Brentford fought back from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw at Leicester City on Sunday.
The Foxes were good value for their lead and were playing very well despite the incessant transfer speculation regarding some of their key players, but were pegged back by Thomas Frank's side on a sweltering afternoon at the King Power Stadium.
Ivan Toney was sent racing through one-on-one with Leicester's new number one Danny Ward by Rico Henry for the first big chance of the afternoon, but the striker took too many touches and the Welshman was able to smother the ball.
Almost immediately at the other end, Youri Tielemans clipped a clever ball over the top for James Maddison, who was unable to keep his diving header down.
Brentford were managing to keep Leicester at arm's length for much of the opening half hour, with Maddison lashing over from 30 yards in frustration.
But the Foxes took the lead from a set piece soon after when Maddison's corner found an unmarked Timothy Castagne, who headed up and over the helpless David Raya.
Yoane Wissa nearly levelled for Brentford moments after, but Jonny Evans recovered to make a critical goal-saving block.
The hosts were unfortunate not to double their lead just before the break when Maddison crashed one against the upright and Pontus Jansson denied Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from scoring on the rebound.
Within 30 seconds of the restart, Dewsbury-Hall did double Leicester's advantage with a thumping strike off the post from 25 yards after Ben Mee's meek clearance.
Tielemans took aim from a similar distance on the break but this time Raya was able to get down low and deny the Belgian.
Frank threw on Josh Dasilva and debutant Keane Lewis-Potter to try and salvage something and the Bees soon pulled one back through Toney, who controlled Henry's outstanding cross to slot past Ward.
Wesley Fofana was next to hit the post for Leicester after he brought down Maddison's free-kick, while Toney's header from a Bryan Mbeumo cross whistled just past the post.
And Brentford found a deserved equaliser with under 10 minutes remaining through Dasilva, who scored his first Premier League goal with a dazzling left-footed curler after missing much of the lat 18 months with a hip injury.
Henry had the ball in the net for the west Londoners but an offside flag had already been raised and so the points were shared.