Leicester 2-2 Brentford: Bees come from two goals down to draw at the King Power

Sadly for Chelsea and Newcastle, Leicester do not sell their best players as cheaply as they throw away leads.

Both Wesley Fofana, a target for Chelsea, and James Maddison, the subject of two bids from Newcastle, played their part in helping Leicester into a 2-0 lead after an hour, thanks to goals from Timothy Castagne and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. 

But Leicester lost their cool in 25-degree heat as Ivan Toney and substitute Josh Dasilva – who was last year told he may not play again due to a rare hip condition – earned a point for their team.

Whether Maddison and Fofana will still be here for Leicester’s next home game, against Southampton in a fortnight, remains to be seen. But on this evidence, the story of this season will be similar to last for the Foxes, the only club in Europe’s five major leagues still to sign a senior player this summer. Christian Eriksen may have departed but the Bees are still a force to be reckoned with.

Brentford boss Thomas Frank made superb use of his substitutes, introducing all five, whereas Rodgers brought on only one – perhaps an indication of how much he trusts those in reserve. Rodgers will point to his team’s bad luck after Youri Tielemans and Fofana hit the post.

With doubt surrounding their futures, Fofana and Maddison were nonetheless included in the starting XI along with Danny Ward, now Leicester’s first-choice goalkeeper after Kasper Schmeichel ended his glittering 11-year spell with the club by joining Nice.

And Ward was quickly called upon to keep his team level. Tielemans’ poor pass was gathered by Vitaly Janelt and when Bryan Mbeumo volleyed his chip goalwards, Ward saved well at his near post.

Tielemans is another who may no longer be here when the transfer window closes and if these are to be his final games for Leicester, he was trying to go out in style. The Belgian’s 25-yard effort was parried by David Raya and then his clever angled ball was headed just wide by Maddison.

In between those moments, Ward again rescued Leicester by racing out to block Ivan Toney after Pontus Jansson’s hopeful pass had caught Fofana on his heels.

With Brentford very deep, Leicester were struggling to make their possession count – until they seized the lead on the half-hour mark. Maddison’s corner was delivered to the near post and Castagne’s run was not tracked, allowing him to plant a header beyond Raya.

Tielemans came within a whisker of doubling the home side’s lead when his 20-yard effort flew past Raya and struck the post, leaving Jansson and Christian Norgaard at full stretch to stop first Dewsbury-Hall and then Maddison turning in the loose ball. It was thirsty work on a hot day and before taking the corner, Maddison was thrown a bottle of water by a Leicester fan.

Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers has demanded more goals and assists from Dewsbury-Hall and the homegrown midfielder gave his manager the perfect answer barely 25 seconds after the restart.

Bees debutant Ben Mee’s poor touch let in Jamie Vardy, who rolled the ball to his left for Dewsbury-Hall to thump in off the post from 25 yards.

Leicester alternated thrilling play with daft errors. A wonderful exchange between Tielemans and Maddison forced a save from Raya before Fofana – under no pressure – passed straight to Norgaard, who combined with Janelt to free Mbeumo. To Fofana’s relief, the wide man’s curling strike missed the target.

Then it was Maddison’s turn to make a mistake and this time it was punished. From a Leicester throw-in, the playmaker’s attempted reverse pass was read by Norgaard. The Dane fed Rico Henry and when the cross arrived, Toney outmuscled Daniel Amartey and finished firmly from close range just after the hour mark.

Moments later, Brentford were rescued by the post once again, this time when Fofana’s header from Maddison’s free-kick hit the woodwork and rebounded off Raya to safety.

Toney should have equalised when Leicester made a mess of trying to play from the defence, Mbeumo crossed brilliantly and the centre-forward – who had drifted away from Fofana – steered his header wide.

Brentford were dominant at this stage and, having made all theitr substitutions, looked fresher. So it was no surprise when they equalised.

Castagne’s block looped to Dasilva and when the substitute collected the ball, no Leicester player moved towards him, allowing him carry the ball to the edge of the box and curl a glorious effort beyond Ward with four minutes left.