April 12, (THEWILL) – Brighton and Hove Albion surrendered two leads against struggling Leicester City, resulting in a 2-2 draw at the AMEX Stadium on Saturday. The result ended Leicester’s nine-match losing streak while hampering Brighton’s pursuit of European qualification.
Joao Pedro converted two penalties for the home side, with his first coming after Conor Coady handled Pervis Estupinan’s cross. Leicester equalised before half-time when Stephy Mavididi’s deflected effort beat Bart Verbruggen. Pedro restored Brighton’s advantage from another spot kick following Luke Thomas’s shirt pull on Matt O’Riley, but Caleb Okoli headed home from a Bilal El Khannouss free-kick to level the match again.
Brighton dominated proceedings, particularly in the first half when Danny Welbeck, Yankuba Minteh and Simon Adingra all had opportunities to score. O’Riley was denied multiple times by Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and also struck the post before half-time.
Leicester manager Ruud van Nistelrooy will take encouragement from his team’s fighting spirit despite relegation looming large. Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler will view the result with frustration, as his team missed the chance to strengthen their position in the race for European football.
The draw leaves Brighton looking up at the European places while Leicester remain rooted near the bottom of the table. Despite showing improved resilience, the Foxes face an uphill battle to maintain their EPL status with matches rapidly running out.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
