The Foxes ended their run of eight successive Premier League defeats, during which they also failed to score, after twice coming from behind at Amex Stadium.

Stephy Mavididi cancelled out Joao Pedro's first-half penalty to end Leicester's 13-hour goal drought in the league.

After the Brazilian restored the Seagulls' lead from 12 yards, Caleb Okoli ensured a share of the spoils for the visitors, who almost snatched all three points late on when Bilal El Khannouss struck the post.

Although Leicester remains in 19th place and 14 points from safety with six games remaining, Van Nistelrooy was delighted to see his players "break a negative cycle".

"It was a spirited performance, and it was a performance I like to see," he said. "We haven't seen enough of it over the past weeks. Today was a great reaction from the players.

"We talked a lot about how to break a negative cycle because when you're in there, you think it's never going to end.

"It starts with changing your behaviour. You have to act now. You can't wait in difficult moments, in adversity. You can't wait for something to change, you have to start acting. 

"The season couldn't end like this with a lack of goals or with this run of form, and we broke that cycle today.

"We want to finish the season in a positive way to ensure we start the next season as good as we can."

Meanwhile, Brighton is now without a win in four league matches, and it missed the chance to move within three points of the top five.

It has dropped 20 points from winning positions in the Premier League this term, the second time it has dropped as many in a single campaign in the competition after 2020-2021.

Manager Fabian Hurzeler conceded his side's performance after regaining their lead was "unacceptable" and feels European qualification will not be achieved unless it improves quickly.

"It's disappointing; we were naive, not mature enough, and we didn't react well to setbacks during the game," he said. 

"We didn't stick together, especially in the final part of the game - that's why we didn't deserve to win. The last 30 minutes were unacceptable.

"If you lead twice, you need a defensive mindset, and everybody has a responsibility for maintaining that. We only defended well in phases, not for 90 minutes, and we weren't able to keep the clean sheet.

"I wouldn't say that's it, but we can’t talk about Europe if we play like that."

"It's frustrating for us; we need to find a way to win games," Joao Pedro told Premier League Productions. "To be in a European tournament, we need to win games. Everyone is sad and frustrated because we could've won, we can't drop points."