Laurent Depoitre scored on his full Premier League debut as Huddersfield and Leicester City fought out a 1-1 draw at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Depoitre, a £3.5m summer signing from Porto, broke the deadlock 40 seconds into the second half before Jamie Vardy brought the visitors level four minutes later from the penalty spot.
Huddersfield will feel aggrieved Elias Kachunga’s second-half header was ruled out for offside, denying them the opportunity to bounce back from their first defeat of the season at West Ham last Monday with all three points.
But Leicester were not without chances themselves. Vardy contrived to let Riyad Mahrez’s second-half cross to the far post slide by him and both sides deserved their point, particularly after the game came alive in the second half.
Depoitre, handed his first league start in place of the injured Steve Mounié, headed Tom Ince’s cross straight at the Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel as Huddersfield started full of purpose.
Midfielder Danny Williams curled a shot from the edge of the penalty area over the crossbar soon after and the home side continued to make all the early running. Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho was afforded the visitors’ only chance in the opening half-an-hour, but his shot was blocked by Huddersfield midfielder Abdelhamid Sabiri, making his first start for the club.
Iheanacho, also making his full debut for Leicester following his £25m move from Manchester City in August, chose to switch the ball on to his right foot instead of shooting first time and a genuine chance was gone. Vardy was given his first sight of goal just before the break when he hooked a Wes Morgan flick off-target as the first half ended goalless.
The game sparked into life after the restart. Kachunga picked out Depoitre in the 46th minute and the big Belgian shrugged off Harry Maguire to fire a low shot from the right edge of the area past Schmeichel into the bottom corner.
But Town’s lead was short-lived. Left-back Chris Lowe was adjudged to have brought down Andy King in the area and Vardy slammed his penalty straight down the middle to make it 1-1 in the 50th minute.
The home support thought their side had regained the lead in the 61st minute, but Kachunga was deemed offside when he headed home Mathias Jorgensen’s cross. Television replays confirmed Kachunga was onside, while Leicester went close to taking the lead themselves when Mahrez’s cross somehow evaded Vardy at the far post.
Ince curled a shot narrowly wide in the 77th minute after being teed up by Aaron Mooy, whose tireless promptings were once again at the heart of all Huddersfield’s positive play.
Leicester felt they might have been awarded a penalty in the last minute when substitute Demarai Gray went down in the area under Jorgensen’s challenge, but referee Jon Moss was unimpressed.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion