West Bromwich Albion’s Craig Gardner (second from left) celebrates scoring in their English Premier League match against Liecester City in Leicester on Tuesday. The match ended 2-2. (Photo: AFP)
West Bromwich Albion’s Craig Gardner (second from left) celebrates scoring in their English Premier League match against Liecester City in Leicester on Tuesday. The match ended 2-2. (Photo: AFP)
Craig Gardner’s sublime free-kick prevented Leicester City going five points clear in the Premier League as West Bromwich Albion held the leaders to a 2-2 draw on Tuesday.
After Salomon Rondon put West Brom ahead, Leicester hit back through Danny Drinkwater and Andy King, only for Gardner to earn the visitors a point by arcing a free-kick into the top-left corner in the 50th minute.
Tottenham Hotspur can go above Leicester on goal difference if they win at West Ham United on Wednesday, while Arsenal will be just three points behind them if they overcome Swansea City.
“We made a lot of chances, but the ball didn’t want to go inside. This is football,” Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri said.
“But I’m more happy now than after the match against Norwich. Tonight we played much, much, much better.
“We believe in ourselves and we continue to fight. Until the end, every match is important to us.”
Ranieri made two changes to the team that had edged Norwich City 1-0 at the weekend, Danny Simpson and King replacing Daniel Amartey and the injured N’Golo Kante, and saw his side fall behind in the 11th minute.
Darren Fletcher’s through-ball released Rondon and the Venezu-elan striker shrugged Robert Huth to the ground before steering a shot beneath Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmei-chel.
Drinkwater equalised on the half-hour with a shot that deflected off Jonas Olsson and looped over Ben Foster and after Jamie Vardy had headed against the bar, Leicester went ahead in first-half stoppage time.
Marc Albrighton’s crossfield pass from the left was audaciously back-heeled into King’s path by Riyad Mahrez and the Welsh midfielder swept home.
But five minutes into the second half Gardner levelled after Mahrez had been penalised for handball, caressing the ball over the wall and past a flat-footed Schmeichel from around 22 yards.
Leicester piled on the pressure in the latter stages, Shinji Okazaki heading against the bar and Foster thwarting substitute Jeff Schlupp, Vardy and Wes Morgan, but they could not find a way through.
Chelsea extended their unbeaten run to 12 league games with a 2-1 win at Norwich City that saw them climb from 11th place to eighth, five points below the European berths.
Kenedy put the visitors ahead after just 39 seconds, the Brazilian wide man drilling home left-footed from outside the box to register the fastest goal of the season to date.
“We didn’t want to go into a battle, but they forced us into a battle,” said Chelsea interim manager Guus Hiddink.
Everton ushered bottom club Aston Villa a step closer to relegation with a 3-1 win at Villa Park, while Southampton lost 0-2 at south-coast rivals Bournemouth.
