High-flying Leicester maintained its unbeaten start to the season as a second-half fightback secured a 2-2 draw at Stoke on Saturday, denying the Potters their first Premier League win this season. The hosts had been firmly in control at Britannia Stadium, taking the lead in the 13th minute when the fit-again Bojan Krkic — making his first league start in eight months after a serious knee injury — slotted home, before Jonathan Walters pounced on an error by Wes Morgan to make it 2-0 seven minutes later. But Leicester reduced the deficit in the 51st through Riyad Mahrez's penalty and Jamie Vardy then notched the equalizer in the 69th. Leicester, the surprise team of the season so far, remains provisionally second with 12 points from six games. Stoke stays in the relegation zone with just three points from six games. The Foxes went into this game second in the table and with their boss Claudio Ranieri having promised to buy his players pizza if they kept the first clean sheet of their impressive campaign. But Stoke went 1-0 up when Marko Arnautovic deftly turned away from Ritchie De Laet on the left flank, cut inside and delivered a wonderful through ball for Bojan, who stroked home his first goal of the season. Soon after, Stoke had another goal. Ex-Potters man Robert Huth allowed Jack Butland's long kick upfield to bounce past him and Morgan then made a complete hash of an attempt to play the ball back to his goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. Walters, who had dashed past Huth, seized on the loose ball and side-footed in. Things suddenly became less comfortable for Stoke shortly after halftime as Arnautovic bundled over Danny Drinkwater and Mahrez fired in the resulting penalty, his fifth goal of the season. Leicester came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Aston Villa in the last round and threatened to do likewise against Stoke when Vardy equalized with his fourth goal of the season, holding off Erik Pieters and scuffing a shot beyond Butland. Vardy then almost won it at the death but his shot went narrowly wide. (For more sports news andupdates, followAhramOnlineSportson Twitter at@AO_Sportsand onFacebookatAhramOnlineSports.) http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/141914.aspx
