This was a frenetic, see-sawing and at times truly silly game of football that embodied the emotions of a relegation scrap. Dominic Calvert‑Lewin’s second goal of the season earned Everton an early lead but from there this match descended into chaos and when James Maddison missed a penalty to give Leicester a two-goal buffer after goals by Caglar Soyuncu and Jamie Vardy there was always scope for Sean Dyche’s side to cling on. And so they did, Alex Iwobi striking an equaliser in the second half. So amateurish was the defending in parts, it was hard not to feel neither team deserved to walk off the pitch victorious and in the end, after four fraught minutes of second-half stoppage time, they had to settle for a point that does little for either side. Daniel Iversen was surely the man of the match, the Leicester goalkeeper making a string of fantastic saves, the best of which he saved until last when he palmed Abdoulaye Doucouré’s stinging drive to safety with three minutes of normal time to play. Everton also had to recover from losing their captain, Séamus Coleman, to a serious-looking knee injury. If anything typified the desperation of these sides then it was the early goalmouth scramble that culminated in Michael Keane attempting an overhead-kick on the edge of the Leicester six-yard box and Calvert-Lewin juggling the ball with his feet in a bid to keep an Everton attack moving. Everton settled far quicker and further defused Leicester’s pre-match enthusiasm when Calvert-Lewin leathered a penalty down the middle of Daniel Iversen’s goal. Michael Oliver pointed to the spot after taking a dim view of Timothy Castagne’s clumsy shove on Calvert-Lewin. Dyche glanced at his watch, Calvert-Lewin blasted in and he wheeled away beating the Everton badge on his salmon-pink shirt. Everton’s joy was short-lived. Within seven minutes Soyuncu had sourced an equaliser and Vardy earned Leicester the lead 11 minutes later. Soyuncu turned home after his centre-back partner, Wout Faes, kept a Maddison free-kick alive. That goal galvanised a Leicester crowd armed with clappers. The stadium announcer made a plea for all supporters to remain seated. Thousands of Leicester fans responded by rising to their feet and singing: “Stand up if you love Leicester”. A few minutes later those same supporters went berserk. Maddison slipped Vardy through on Pickford’s goal after Youri Tielemans intercepted an Iwobi pass on halfway. Vardy raced clear of Keane and rounded Pickford before slamming the ball in and hurtling towards the nearest corner flag. Cue the knee-slide. Then Vardy stuck his tongue out. Suddenly Leicester were enjoying themselves. They would have had a two-goal margin at the interval but Maddison screwed a poor penalty straight at Pickford’s midriff after Keane was penalised for handling Harvey Barnes’s cross. For Leicester, it was yet another game without a clean sheet – they have not shut out the opposition since mid-November – but Everton would have taken the lead earlier had Iversen not denied Iwobi, whose right-foot shot was zooming towards the top corner. Iversen bettered that save with a couple of magnificent stops approaching half time. He repelled Dwight McNeil’s effort with a strong left hand to leave Dyche’s first-team coach, Steve Stone, scratching his head and then the Leicester goalkeeper instinctively denied Calvert-Lewin a second goal with his left boot. In truth, Calvert-Lewin should have buried the chance. McNeil made tracks down the left and Soyuncu could only get a big toe on his low cross. Soyuncu inadvertently put the ball on a plate for Calvert-Lewin to finish. Vardy almost punished his miss seconds later but clipped the crossbar as Leicester turned defence into attack. Everton had to contend with losing Séamus Coleman to a serious-looking injury on the verge of half time after an innocuous collision with the Leicester midfielder Boubakary Soumaré. Coleman, who returned to the starting lineup here following a hamstring injury, lay grounded for several minutes before being carried off the pitch on a stretcher by ambulance staff. That did not stop the long-serving Coleman from geeing up his teammates as he departed the field. That Everton breached the Leicester defence so easily throughout was an indictment of quite how brittle the team Dean Smith inherited last month is. No team in the top six divisions of English football has scored fewer goals than Everton this season but they frequently panicked the Leicester backline with minimal fuss and equalised nine minutes after the break when Leicester failed to deal with a hopeful McNeil cross. Faes looped a header into the air and Iwobi skittled a cool first-time finish arrowing through the legs of the Leicester left-back Luke Thomas and into the bottom corner. At the other end, an alert James Tarkowski headed clear after Vardy tried to divert Barnes’s thrashed cross goalwards. Both teams looked susceptible to conceding a winner and a Leicester supporter combed his hands through his hair after Barnes let fly on the half-volley, his effort flashing wide with 20 minutes to play. Then Tielemans had a pop from distance. Keane was being pulled from pillar to post by Vardy and a nervy crescendo ensued. Iversen punched the ball clear from Calvert-Lewin’s feet after a poor Soyuncu clearance plunged Leicester into trouble. The occasion seemed to get to Pickford as the Everton goalkeeper presented Vardy with a chance to put the ball into an empty net. Pickford rushed out of goal to intercept Soyuncu’s long ball downfield but after taking the ball past Vardy Pickford was faced with Barnes, who blocked his clearance. Vardy tried to curl a shot into an empty net but, fortunately for Pickford, his effort thudded into the side netting.