West Bromwich Albion halted Leicester City's chase for the title by holding them to a 2-2 draw at King Power Stadium on Tuesday.
The Baggies took the lead in the 11th minute when Salomon Rondon raced onto a lovely ball from Darren Fletcher, muscled off the challenge of Robert Huth, and flung himself at the shot to get it beyond Kasper Schmeichel.
Leicester levelled on the half-hour mark when the ball fell kindly for Danny Drinkwater who teed it up from range and saw his shot take a wicked deflection off Jonas Olsson, looping over Ben Foster.
On the stroke of half-time, the Foxes found themselves 2-1 up through Andy King who scored his first goal in the league since April last year with a neat finish from Riyad Mahrez's clever knockdown with the outside of his left boot.
Albion hit back five minutes into the second half when Craig Gardner scored for the second game in a row with a sublime free-kick which has Schmeichel rooted to his spot, setting up a tense finish in the East Midlands.
Claudio Ranieri's men were creating plenty of chances and were desperately unlucky not to have a third with Shinji Okazaki heading into the crossbar, after Jamie Vardy had done in the first half, before Foster denied both Vardy and Wes Morgan to keep the high-flying Foxes at bay.
League leaders Leicester are now three points clear of second-placed Tottenham, prior to Wednesday night's fixtures, while Tony Pulis' Baggies have crept up to 13th having won two and drawn one of their past three.
MATCH OVERVIEW
Leicester City: 2 (Danny Drinkwater 30', Andy King 45+1')
West Bromwich Albion: 2 (Salomon Rondon 11', Craig Gardner 50')
King Power Stadium, Leicester - 32,018
TALKING POINTS
- Is this just a little speed hump in the way of Leicester? Are they playing well enough to beat off the challenge of Spurs, Arsenal and Man City?
- West Brom have been in decent form of late. They are now 12 points clear of the bottom three and only looking up as they are three points off eighth.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Leicester head to Watford on Saturday as West Brom prepare to host Man Utd on Sunday.
TWITTER INSIGHT
Keep on! #baggies#WBA#Gladiatorhttps://t.co/70vqAuYTKO
— Salomon Rondon (@salorondon23) March 2, 2016
Frustrating night but a point in the right direction.. thanks for all the support! #LeiWbahttps://t.co/Djhg9EOmECpic.twitter.com/oqLlmESa5a
— Andy King (@10_kingy) March 2, 2016
QUOTES CORNER
Leicester's Ranieri on the title race:
"There are Arsenal, Tottenham and (Manchester) City in the race to fight for the title and there is little Leicester to fight against them.
"I am only concerned at my team and I look at the table at the end of the season to see where we are."
West Brom boss Pulis on Leicester:
"I hope Leicester win the league.
"I am now supporting Leicester for the rest of the season, apart from West Brom.
"Every Leicester fan has to be proud of their team. They are fantastic and never stop."
STATS SPECIALS
*Thanks to Opta
3 - Salomon Rondon has scored in 3 of his last 5 Premier League games, having failed to score in his previous nine in the competition. Form.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016
1 - Leicester are the final Premier League side to concede at home in 2016. Breached.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016
2 - Two of Leicester's three goals from outside the area this season have been scored by Danny Drinkwater. Refreshing.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016
4 - Andy King is the fourth Welshman to score on St David's Day in Premier League history (Pembridge, Saunders and Collison). Dragons.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016
2 - Craig Gardner has scored in back-to-back PL games for the first time since last April which were also v Palace and Leicester. Spooky.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2016
