Leicester, Premier League champions 10 years ago, had shouts for a penalty waved away by referee Gavin Ward in the opening 10 minutes when Conor Shaughnessy brought Patson Daka down in the box but nothing was given.
The hosts were forced into making two early changes when winger Keshi Anderson and full-back Terry Devlin, who recently picked up Portsmouth’s player of the season award, were withdrawn because of injury.
The first shot on target came in the final moments of first-half stoppage time when Leicester forward Bobby De Cordova-Reid broke beyond Shaughnessy but his low effort was fired into the arms of Nicolas Schmid.
After the break Pompey had a great chance to score when Millenic Alli was played through by Colby Bishop but he only ended up taking the ball out of play while attempting to dribble around Asmir Begovic, much to the frustration of the home support.
But John Mousinho’s side were able to break the deadlock just after the hour when Segecic sent a high, curling corner to the back post where Bowat bundled the ball into the net.
Moments later there were unsavoury scenes when Hamza Choudhury exchanged words with a Portsmouth supporter in the stands after being substituted and had to be escorted to the bench by the officials and a Leicester staff member to the jeers of the home fans.
Daka had a chance for an equaliser saved at close range by Schmid and moments later Foxes defender Jannik Vestergaard saw a shot blocked by Regan Poole, who threw himself at the effort.
Poole came close to becoming the villain moments after that heroic block, underhitting a backpass to Schmid that saw Daka run through on goal, but the Pompey keeper produced a fine tackle to end to the danger.
