Leicester have made a habit of doing things the hard way this season and it needed an equaliser from Harvey Barnes to rescue a valuable point against 10-man Brentford after Brendan Rodgers’s side displayed their inability to defend set pieces once again.
Mathias Jensen’s deflected goal that rounded off a brilliant corner routine had seemed to put Thomas Frank’s side on course for a place in the top six heading into the international break. But staring down the barrel of a sixth straight defeat that would have left them level on points with West Ham in the bottom three, Rodgers took comfort from a battling performance after Barnes struck at the start of the second half and Brentford substitute Shandon Baptiste was sent off for picking up two bookings in the space of minutes after coming off the bench.
“It breaks the cycle of results that we were on and I’m really pleased with the spirit we showed,” he said. “It’s not nice when you are losing games and now we know what our task is until the end of the season.”
While Leicester remain one of only three teams in Europe’s top five leagues not to have registered a clean sheet this year after Daniel Iversen was handed his first league start in place of Danny Ward in goal, their desire to dig in for a scrap against Brentford, who hadn’t lost at home since facing Arsenal in September, bodes well for the battles that lie ahead. A trip to face Crystal Palace after the international break may prove vital for their hopes of pulling away from trouble.
Rodgers’ side looked like being in for a long afternoon when they were forced to spend the opening 10 minutes defending for their lives. Only a well-timed clearance at the back post from Timothy Castagne that cut out Rico Henry’s tempting cross for Bryan Mbeumo kept the hosts from taking the lead.
But having ridden the early storm, Barnes was not far away at the other end before some of the visiting fans in the opposite corner celebrated when they thought Patson Daka’s header from Ricardo Pereira’s cross had gone the right side of the post. The Zambia striker was then quick to pounce on a mistake from Ethan Pinnock but could not direct his shot on target.
Those misses were to prove costly when Brentford went ahead soon afterwards. A spectacular crossfield pass from the outstanding Henry set up Mbeumo to curl just over just before Brentford took the lead through a corner routine straight from the training ground. Having been worked to Henry on the edge of the box, his ball picked out Mbeumo at the far post and his volleyed cross was eventually touched back by the alert Ivan Toney – who endured one of his quieter days – into the path of Jensen, whose shot took a massive deflection off Pereira to give Iversen no chance.
It was exactly the kind of defending that has cost Leicester so dearly this season, although it is hard not to admire the set-piece innovation that has been a hallmark of Brentford’s unlikely rise up the table. “It’s a key thing for us – we spend a lot of time working on our set pieces and it’s great to see when one pays off,” said Frank.
A clearly frustrated James Maddison headed straight down the tunnel after enduring a half to forget but the England midfielder was at the heart of Leicester’s equaliser straight after the break. A mazy run from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall found Maddison who had time to measure a brilliant through ball for Barnes to finish with aplomb.
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Frank was thankful for the quick feet of David Raya after the Spanish goalkeeper somehow managed to keep the ball under pressure from Barnes having rushed way out of his area.
The referee, Darren Bond, waved away substitute Kevin Schade’s claims for a penalty after he clashed with Harry Souttar late on but had no choice but to dismiss Baptiste in stoppage time after his mistimed challenge left Dewsbury-Hall in a crumpled heap.
