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

Tottenham manager Robert Vilahamn says his side are “taking steps” despite being held to a third consecutive Women’s Super League draw by Leicester at King Power Stadium.

Spurs have won three WSL games this season, two fewer than the entirety of the last campaign, which ended with Vilahamn’s assistant Vicky Jepson in interim charge after Rehanne Skinner was sacked.

Vilahamn is remaining optimistic despite a difficult afternoon.

“We have to improve because we should score a few chances. It is nice to see the squad taking steps,” the Swede told the club’s social media channels.

“The second half we were brilliant. We played the way we want to offensively. We played through them, created chances, pressed high and scored one great goal. We had so many chances. It is too bad we didn’t win but it was a great performance.

“We haven’t lost since the first game against Chelsea and we are dominant in the games. We got one point, we should have had three.”

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

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.

WSL top scorer 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 wrest 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 to add to her six goals this term and that may be of concern to Vilahamn.