Ipswich Town vs Leicester City. Sky Bet Championship.
Portman RoadAttendance29,410.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Ipswich Town and Leicester City at Portman Road on Boxing Day; Stephy Mavididi curls in brilliant opener for Leicester; Sam Morsy's shot deflects in off Jannik Vestergaard to keep Ipswich within six points
Wednesday 27 December 2023 11:31, UK
Jannik Vestergaard scored an unfortunate own goal in the 93rd minute as Championship leaders Leicester drew 1-1 at Ipswich.
The second-placed hosts were aiming to respond to their shock 4-0 defeat at Leeds last week and looked to be heading for back-to-back defeats for the first time under Kieran McKenna until their fortunate leveller which keeps them six points behind.
Stephy Mavididi curled a stunning opener past Vaclav Hladky in the 25th minute to put Leicester ahead before Patson Daka had the chance to make it two although was kept out.
Ipswich improved in the second half while Leicester's Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was denied a penalty when he was bundled over in the box - but the hosts' efforts were finally rewarded when Sam Morsy's long-range shot took two deflections, the second off Vestergaard, on its way in.
A tight opening 20 minutes led to Ipswich's George Hirst suffering what appeared to be a hamstring injury when he innocuously slipped and he was forced off.
And three minutes later the Foxes took the lead through Mavididi when he found space on the left to curl a shot beyond the reach of Hladky into the bottom right corner of the net.
Daka was then denied by Hladky when played through which proved to be a crucial moment.
Vestergaard grazed the roof of the Ipswich net after the break with a header and Conor Chaplin just tried to catch Mads Hermansen off his line with a shot from just inside the Leicester half.
Hermansen then had to dive full length to parry Chaplin's shot away before the Ipswich forward fired over from inside the penalty area.
Leicester struggled to find their attacking rhythm although did see Dewsbury-Hall barged over in the penalty area following a challenge by Leif Davis but the referee waved play on and Ipswich grabbed a deserved equaliser in the final moments.
Morsy stepped forward and shot from 25 yards which hit Ricardo Pereira and then the head of Vestergaard, wrong-footing Hermansen to end up in the net.
Ipswich's Kieran McKenna:
"We deserved something from the game. The boys were a credit to themselves and it was a really good game.
"We can be pleased with the performance. The goal came from a fortunate deflection but it was at least the reward we deserved for the performance.
"The important thing was we kept the belief in what's got us to this point and that's the pleasing thing about the performance.
"To respond to that in terms of trying to play as brave as possible against a really good team we have a lot of respect for, to stick true to our beliefs that's what we can be pleased of."
Leicester's Enzo Maresca:
"In the end, it's fair. In the second half, we controlled quite well for half an hour, especially the last 10, 15 minutes.
"It's not easy to play every three days, they are human beings, it's normal they can drop some things. Overall, I'm very happy with what they did. It's a shame when you're so close to three points but at the same time, they are a very good team. It's not easy to come here and win the game. We were close."
On possible penalty: "I think it's so clear. We don't need to spend any words. Also, their player was already booked (Marcus Harness) and with one man less the game is almost done. Apart from the penalty we had different chances in the first half where we could score and be more clinical."
