Marc and Vardy show delights Maresca
LEICESTER boss Enzo Maresca admitted his team’s opening goal reminded him of their famous Premier League title win as the Championship leaders booked their place in the fifth round.
The Foxes rode their luck until Jamie Vardy’s header from Marc Albrighton’s cross on 47 minutes broke the deadlock. Yunus Akgun’s stunning strike on 72 minutes and Dennis Praet’s cool finish two minutes from time settled it.
Maresca was left reminiscing about Leicester’s opener, which came from Premier League and FA Cup-winning duo Vardy and Albrighton. He said: ‘It was like 2016, it was fantastic. I’m happy for Jamie because it’s important for a striker to score goals and I’m happy for Marc for the assist.
‘I’m especially happy for the seven or eight young players we had in the squad from the academy, I think it’s something historic.
‘We expected to struggle a little bit because of the changes and playing many young players, but we struggled because we were not playing the way we like to.
‘We were lucky in the first half, they had many chances. The second half was much better. A big part of the result is Jakub Stolarczyk’s saves in the first half.’
Birmingham suffered their first defeat under Tony Mowbray, who was frustrated by his side’s inability to convert a number of first-half chances.
He said: ‘We could have been 4-0 up, maybe five, but in the end their quality showed. We’re trying to create an identity, there were plenty of positives in the first half.
‘The changes we made didn’t help us. It felt as if we were making changes and becoming less effective and they were making changes and becoming more effective.
‘The second goal was a real killer for us, the game ran away.’
Goalkeeper Stolarczyk kept out Keshi Anderson’s effort with his foot in the opening couple of minutes. Birmingham midfielder Koji Miyoshi then curled a fine effort inches over the bar before Stolarczyk made a crucial save to deny Jordan James in a one-on-one situation.
Stolarczyk also saved Siriki Dembele’s low effort before Jay Stansfield poked a shot against the post five minutes before the break.
Leicester came back out for the second half and showed their quality. Albrighton delivered an inch-perfect cross from the right and Vardy headed home.
Akgun scored his first Leicester goal with a thunderous effort from the edge of the penalty area, then sub Tom Cannon cut the ball back to Praet, who found the bottom right corner to mark his first start since August with a goal.