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MOTD: Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Leicester City

By on January 10, 2016

If Leicester City’s FA Cup Third Round meeting with Tottenham tonight weren’t already overshadowed by a rematch in the league in just three days, the inconclusive 2-2 draw added an even more important replay to the fixture list in ten days’ time.

Both sides rested their big guns in anticipation of Wednesday’s showdown, Tottenham making seven changes from their starting lineup last weekend and Leicester eight. Spurs kept Harry Kane on the bench, only bringing on the Englishman as a late substitute when they were chasing the game, to great avail.

Claudio Ranieri rested Riyad Mahrez and top-scorer Jamie Vardy was sidelined with injury, but The Foxes’ second team stepped up to bag two goals to end their run of three games without a goal. Of course, they had scored in each of their twenty-one previous games largely thanks to Mahrez and Vardy. Yet veteran centerback Marcin Wasilewski scored a first-half header and halftime substitute Shinji Okazaki changed the game for Leicester with his vision and a go-ahead goal, providing a man of the match performance.

Tottenham, however, valiantly maintained their possession-based ethos and high-pressing system without panicking and Harry Kane buried a late penalty to save the hosts’ blushes.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men came bursting out of the gates, scoring the opening goal just eight minutes in when Christian Eriksen cooly found the bottom-left corner of the net in a crowded penalty area from the rebound of Kasper Schmeichel’s parried save. Eriksen spearheaded Spurs’ attacking efforts and their incessant press.

Yet Leicester found an equalizer out of nowhere as Wasilewski sneaked in front of his marker and craned his neck to power Nathan Dyer’s near-post corner into the back of the net.

Spurs’ early momentum was escaping them, and Kieran Tripper caught a half-cleared corner with a sweetly struck half-volley from thirty yards out. Okazaki’s presence had an immediate impact, and the Japanese forward completed Leicester’s comeback in the forty-eighth minute after a jinxing run down the left side of the box. He wriggled past Eriksen and sent Toby Alderweireld flying the wrong way with a shimmy of the hips. Okazaki’s first effort was blocked by Michel Vorm, but the twenty-nine-year-old made no mistakes with his follow-up, in off the post. Tottenham’s appeared to be following Alderweireld right out of the competition as the clock ticked down.

Leicester looked the more likely to score the next goal, with Nathan Dyer dragging a low effort wide of goal in the fifty-sixth minute and youngster Demarai Gray flashing a dipping, swerving effort just wide of the post soon afterward, but the visitors slowly transitioned into game-management mode.

They had nearly seen the game out come the eighty-ninth minute, yet Tottenham won a penalty out of nowhere when Dyer unknowingly turned around and deflected the ball away from danger with his hand. Kane, once again Tottenham’s savior, stepped up to bury the ensuing penalty to score his fiftieth goal for the club and set up a spicy replay.

Photo credit: wonker, via Wikipedia Comons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.