Benteke the saviour as gritty Palace dig in
For nearly an hour in the spring sunshine, this would have felt like little more than a leisurely stroll for Leicester City.
An early set-piece goal and a trademark Jamie Vardy strike had conjured the sharpest of flashbacks to last season’s title-winning success and seemed to have laid the perfect platform for this week’s visit of Atlético Madrid.
But this is Crystal Palace, and this is the Sam Allardyce revolution. Their resurgence may have taken a while to kick in, but one thing visiting sides can now be sure of is that they will not be given an easy ride in south London. And as Arsenal discovered so painfully on Monday night, when Selhurst Park rocks, it can be hard to stay steady.
Goals from Yohan Cabaye and Christian Benteke yanked Palace back into this match, and provided Leicester with the precise sort of heart-thumping exertion they would have been hoping to avoid ahead of their date with Diego Simeone on Tuesday.
Compared to that blitzing of Arsenal, this ended up being a very different sort of test for Palace, who had shown a surprising lack of spark until they had fallen two goals behind.
“Since the transfer window shut, we have been building a mentality and resilience in the players,” Allardyce said. “Psychologically the players are in a far better place now than when I first arrived.
“Our mental strength has increased. Our fitness has increased with it and our quality, belief and determination have come shining through.”
They needed all that grit in a riproaring second half which ended with both sides fully deserving of a point that will be seen as particularly valuable on a day when both Swansea and Hull were beaten. Premier League safety is not secured, for either team, but it is well within reach.
That said, there was still a “tinge of disappointment” for Leicester manager Craig Shakespeare at the way his team folded after taking full control of proceedings through Vardy and a rare goal from Robert Huth.
“We could have seen it out if we had stayed in the lead a bit longer,” Shakespeare said. “But they asked a lot of questions of us with their aerial threat.”
Despite being expected to rest a number of players ahead of the clash with Atlético, Shakespeare made just two changes to the side that produced such a dogged display in Spain last week.
That was the first surprise. The second came after only six minutes, when Huth lumbered forward to nod in only his second goal of the season.
Christian Fuchs tossed in a long throw, and some pitifully loose Palace marking allowed Huth all the space he needed to plant his effort into the top corner. The ease with which he scored, from a set piece, would have shaken Allardyce to the core.
“We practised it here on the pitch yesterday,” he said. “Unfortunately for me, the players forgot. It’s that simple. Those are the basics, and that is why I continue to bombard the players to get the basics right.”
A good save from the foot of Kasper Schmeichel stopped Benteke from striking an equaliser before half-time, and then Vardy doubled the Leicester lead with a goal taken straight from last season’s playbook.
A Palace corner was cleared to Riyad Mahrez, who twisted and turned
before sending Vardy hurtling into the opposition half. With just Jeffrey Schlupp in his way, the England striker cut on to his left foot and curled the ball past Wayne Hennessey. Blink and you missed it.
Having so far failed to break out of walking pace, that was the jolt Palace needed. Almost immediately after the goal, Schlupp’s shot was deflected into the path of Cabaye, who made no mistake from inside the box.
Now the Eagles were soaring, as Wilfried Zaha danced past a couple of challenges before firing wide, and then had a cross cleared desperately. The equaliser was coming, and it arrived through Benteke, who was waiting at the back post to power home Andros Townsend’s cross for his third goal in four games.
Having weathered the Palace storm, Leicester could have nicked the three points, but Danny Drinkwater blasted wide with seconds remaining. Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey 6; Ward 5, Kelly 6, Sakho 6, Schlupp 5 (Van Aanholt 69); Milivojevic 7, Cabaye 6; Zaha 7 (McArthur 84), Puncheon 5, Townsend 7; Benteke 7. Subs Speroni (g), Delaney, Flamini, Sako, Campbell. Leicester City (4-4-2): Schmeichel 6; Simpson 5, Benalouane 6 (Chilwell 76), Huth 7, Fuchs 7; Mahrez 6 (Gray 75), Ndidi 6, King 6 (Drinkwater 64), Albrighton 6; Ulloa 6, Vardy 7. Subs Zieler (g), Chilwell, Musa, Amartey, Okazaki. Booked Simpson, King Referee M Dean (Cheshire).