CUP HOLDERS
2021 winners are embarrassed by local rivals as Cooper’s warriors
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 4 24
Zinckernagel 23 Johnson Worrall 32 Spence 61
LEICESTER CITY
BY
1 LEICESTER’S grip on the FA Cup was ripped away in nightmare fashion as they were humbled by their Championship neighbours.
It ranks as a shock, but the only real shock about it was that Steve Cooper’s men didn’t run out even bigger winners.
That would only have been a darker shade of unthinkable – because this really was pretty much as bad as it gets for a Leicester supporter.
They were blown out of the water down by the Trent in dramatic fashion as Forest set about their local rivals with a ruthless first-half display.
When the Foxes players went to acknowledge their fans at the end, they had nearly all left the City Ground.
The heady days of May when Leicester lifted the Cup for the first time seemed an eternity away as their defence was shot to pieces.
It’s Huddersfield at home in the fifth round for Forest and no one can have any argument with that because this display was emphatic.
When Djed Spence fired home just after an hour, it put the tie beyond any shadow of a doubt. There was no way back for Brendan Rodgers’ men.
Quite what the Leicester boss said to his men at half-time is anyone’s guess.
But it wouldn’t have made easy listening.
Rodgers had a face like thunder and no wonder, he had seen his side outthought, outfought and snookered right behind the black ball by a Forest triple blast in nine explosive minutes.
Ironically, Leicester might have gone in front early on but Kelechi Iheanacho sent a good opportunity woefully wide. Then Forest tore into them and knocked the stuffing right out of the visitors with two goals in 24 seconds.
Keinan Davis had already fired a warning shot with a left-foot volley which crashed against the angle of bar and post. But in the 23rd minute, Cooper (below) was smiling when Philip Zinckernagel rammed the ball home from close range after Davis had knocked down a Brennan Johnson cross.
Leicester had not even dusted themselves down when they gifted Forest a second goal in comical fashion.
Daniel Amartey’s back pass sold keeper Danny Ward hopelessly short and Johnson lined up an angled shot.
In fairness, he still had a lot on his plate but he kept his head, slipped the ball through the keeper’s legs and saw it roll precisely over the line.
The home crowd could hardly believe it and there was more to come when skipper Joe Worrall thumped a header into the ground from James Garner’s corner and peeled away in delight as it bounced up over Ward and into the net.
That sparked an ugly scene, which will now be investigated by the FA, as an idiot got onto the pitch from the away end
and started to throw punches at the Forest players. He was quickly dumped onto his backside and led away.
Leicester gave themselves a glimmer of hope just before half-time when Forest keeper Brice Samba got in a mess racing out to deal with a James Maddison ball down the flank.
Samba was left exposed way, way out of his goal and Iheanacho worked out the required angle perfectly to reduce Forest’s lead to 3-1.
There was more to come – all from the team in red shirts.