Leicester manager Ruud van Nistelrooy was full of praise for Jamie Vardy after the veteran striker inspired a dramatic comeback to secure a 2-2 draw against Brighton at the King Power Stadium.
Van Nistelrooy’s side looked destined for defeat as Brighton surged to a 2-0 lead, with goals from Tariq Lamptey and Yankuba Minteh putting the Seagulls in control.
However, Vardy’s late heroics turned the game on its head. The 36-year-old levelled in the 86th minute before providing the assist for Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s 90th-minute equaliser.
“If you are on the scoresheet and make an assist, then you have to say this result would not be possible without him,” said Van Nistelrooy.
“It’s also the performance of the whole team, of course, that puts him in position.
“I enjoyed the whole sequence leading up to the goal. And that’s why we as a team, we put him in a position there.
“And that’s why we want these players who can make the difference for us in position.
“Then Jamie had the awareness for that second goal. Because I think you know with strikers, their eyes are focused on the goals.
“But to have the awareness to play the path to Bobby, pretty good skill, that was a brilliant moment, because so late in the game, 90th minute, on the top of my head.
“And when you have the calmness and the composure to decide on these things, then that’s absolute top class. We’re happy that we have that.
“If you don’t pass it, you have to score. I think he made sure that we were going to get that goal.”
While Leicester celebrated a hard-earned point, Brighton were left to rue missed opportunities and lapses in concentration. The draw cost them the chance to move up to fifth in the table, and for the second time this season, they allowed a 2-0 lead to slip late on.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler admitted his side must improve their game management in critical moments.
“I think when you are 2-0 up and control the whole game, you don’t give away too many shots for the opponent, and then things happen in 10 minutes, you should be disappointed,” Hurzeler said.
“We got punished for easy mistakes. I think it happens now several times in the season, so we need to learn.
“We need to find the right game management in this period of time to take away the three points.
“We need to be much more mature. We need to be much more clear how we solve the things in the last five, six minutes, and then these things won’t happen.”
