Same old Leicester, always doing things contrariwise. Four days after marching into the last 16 of the Champions League they produced a display that prompted their manager, Claudio Ranieri, to declare that they are in a domestic relegation fight.
A stoppage-time penalty by Islam Slimani averted a third successive defeat in the Premier League but could not mask the fact that the champions are floundering on the home front while flourishing in continental competition.
This draw leaves them two points above the bottom three. “The performance wasn’t good, Middlesbrough played better than us,” said Ranieri. “I am not worried but I’m a very pragmatic man. For us now it is important to think we are in a relegation battle and then every point is OK. Of course we always want to win but when it’s not possible, one point is OK.”
For a long time even one point looked beyond them here. Middlesbrough started as if the King Power was their own estate, swaggering with the confidence of a team that had lost one league game on the road this season and could sense the vulnerability of their hosts. They passed better and pressed harder than the hosts, whose impotence in the face of such uppityness was staggering.
It took Boro 13 minutes to help themselves to the lead. Alvaro Negredo swept a pass wide to Gastón Ramírez on the left, and the Uruguayan cantered forward before delivering a return pass to the striker, who had made his way into the box. Negredo’s connection with the ball was unclean but nowhere near as slovenly as Leicester’s tracking. The ball flew past Ron-Robert Zieler for Negredo’s first goal since the opening day of the season.
There was no immediate reaction from Leicester. They continued to look hungover as Boro made merry around them, passing with an accuracy that Leicester could not match on the rare occasions they got the ball. The home team’s only threat came from long throw-ins by Christian Fuchs. Then, on the half-hour, a flash of magic by Riyad Mahrez woke Leicester up.
The Algerian shimmied his way down the right and then clipped a cross to Shinji Okazaki, who very nearly applied a delectable finish, but his overhead kick whizzed out off the top of the crossbar.
Then luck smiled on Leicester, which is to say that Lee Mason pointed to the spot for a penalty that should not have been given. Callum Chambers handled the ball when it was lofted into the box by Danny Simpson but that was because he had been shoved in the back by Wes Morgan. “Morgan recognised that to my players at half-time,” said Aitor Karanka. But by then Mahrez had converted the spot kick.
Leicester briefly improved and would have scored in the 41st minute following cute play by Okazaki and Mahrez if Ramírez had not made a superb intervention to nick the ball off the toe of Jamie Vardy six yards from goal. Vardy must not have seen Ramírez coming, which was apt given that he himself had been nigh-on invisible up to that point.
He was not seen again until the 64th minute, when he was booked for a late tackle on Clayton. Straight after that he was substituted, with Islam Slimani entering in his place. Soon after Mahrez made way too, Ahmed Musa introduced instead. Leicester had a lot of the ball but created little.
Then Boro showed how to make the most of possession. Adam Forshaw dropped a splendid pass over the Leicester defence from inside his own half and with Fuchs and Robert Huth caught out Negredo swept the bouncing ball past Zieler from a tight angle.
Only in the dying minutes did Leicester summon defiance. They finally began to trigger real panic in the Boro area. It told just in time as Martin de Roon’s frazzled nerves forced him into a gauche tackle on Morgan. This time there was no debating the decision. Slimani’s execution of the verdict was merciless.
