LONDON — Leicester City and Everton both remained deep in relegation trouble at the English Premier League after slugging out a 2-2 draw in a gripping basement battle at a raucous King Power Stadium.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s first goal since October, a penalty in the 15th minute, put Everton ahead but Leicester equalised seven minutes later when Caglar Soyuncu fired home.
Jamie Vardy’s clinical finish gave Leicester the lead in the 33rd minute and in a manic end to the opening half, Everton missed two open goals and Leicester playmaker James Maddison had a penalty saved by Jordan Pickford.
Alex Iwobi dragged Everton level with a volley 10 minutes into the second half and both sides strove for the winner that would have given their survival hopes a huge boost.
In the end they both had to settle for a point which was more welcome for Leicester who moved out of the relegation zone with 30 points from 34 games.
Everton, who has not been out of the top-flight for 69 years but look increasingly likely to drop into the second tier, remained next to bottom with 29 points from 34 games.
For Leicester, it was yet another game without a clean sheet – they have not shut out the opposition since mid-November – but Everton would have taken the lead earlier had Iversen not denied Iwobi, whose right-foot shot was zooming towards the top corner. Iversen bettered that save with a couple of magnificent stops approaching half time.
He repelled Dwight McNeil’s effort with a strong left hand to leave Dyche’s first-team coach, Steve Stone, scratching his head and then the Leicester goalkeeper instinctively denied Calvert-Lewin a second goal with his left boot.
Everton had to contend with losing Seamus Coleman to a serious-looking injury on the verge of half time after an innocuous collision with the Leicester midfielder Boubakary Soumare.
Coleman, who returned to the starting lineup here following a hamstring injury, lay grounded for several minutes before being carried off the pitch on a stretcher by ambulance staff.
That did not stop the long-serving Coleman from geeing up his teammates as he departed the field.
That Everton breached the Leicester defence so easily throughout was an indictment of quite how brittle the team Dean Smith inherited last month is.
No team in the top six divisions of English football has scored fewer goals than Everton this season but they frequently panicked the Leicester backline with minimal fuss and equalised nine minutes after the break when Leicester failed to deal with a hopeful McNeil cross.
Faes looped a header into the air and Iwobi skittled a cool first-time finish arrowing through the legs of the Leicester left-back Luke Thomas and into the bottom corner. At the other end, an alert James Tarkowski headed clear after Vardy tried to divert Barnes’s thrashed cross goalwards.
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