Leicester 1-1 Tottenham: Spurs rally to deny Foxes but rue missed chances

Celin Bizet scored a second-half equaliser as Tottenham denied Leicester a huge Women’s Super League win at the King Power Stadium.

Leicester’s point halted their run of three successive defeats, which culminated in a collapse against Arsenal last week.

Spurs had to make do with a third straight 1-1 draw, despite dominating the game.

Leicester started strongly and could have taken the lead through Missy Goodwin after Becky Spencer parried Jutta Rantala’s curling shot, but Ashleigh Neville denied her on the line.

It took over 10 minutes for Tottenham to stem the hosts’ tide. Spurs’ first sight of goal came through Grace Clinton from distance, but it did not test Leitzig.

Leicester took a deserved lead in the 18th minute when Goodwin broke with conviction and fed Cayman, who slotted calmly beyond Spencer from close range.

Martha Thomas forced Leitzig into a smart save from Ria Percival’s cross as Spurs looked for an immediate response, before the German goalkeeper made a superb succession of stops from Jess Naz, Neville and Angharad James.

After the break, Spurs stepped it up and Naz continued causing problems. Leitzig was equal to her deflected effort from the left, before she denied Bizet after good work by Thomas.

The trio linked up again for Spurs’ leveller just before the hour. The move started with Naz, before Bizet latched on to Thomas’ searching pass to poke the ball beyond the unfortunate Leitzig.

Momentum was with the away side, but Leicester captain Sam Tierney crashed a shot off the bar, almost restoring their lead.

Substitute Rosella Ayane twice went close as Spurs looked to complete their turnaround. First, Ayane could not quite connect with Bizet’s cross, before her shot from close range was blocked by Leitzig and Sophie Howard.

Spurs continued to look the most likely but ultimately could not make their possession fully count, and their exasperation was summed up by another Leitzig save, this time from Thomas.

Tottenham fail to cash in on big chances

In the previous two games, Spurs let the lead slip on the way to dropping points.

While they were behind in this one after an electric Leicester start, there is a similar sense that this was a game for them to win. Not doing so was down to their own poor finishing.

Leitzig deserves huge credit for keeping them at bay, but a number of those chances should have been put away, particularly when Naz failed to score from close range amid those three blocks in succession.

On the balance of play, Spurs would have deserved to win having done well to wrestle control of the game.

But for all of striker Thomas’ impressive build-up play, and crucial role in the equaliser, the fact is she did not get into enough dangerous positions and that may be a concern to manager Robert Vilahamn.