lEicEStEr city 2 Pearce (19, og), Barnes (40) WiGan atHlEtic 1 Lowe (73)
Leicester eased into the fourth round with victory against Wigan at the King Power Stadium.
With a League Cup semi-final first leg against Aston Villa on the horizon in four days’ time, Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers made 10 changes from the New Year’s Day win at Newcastle.
Only left-back Ben Chilwell kept his place, but it made little difference to the result as an own-goal by Latics debutant, Tom Pearce, and a Harvey Barnes strike had Leicester firmly in control at half-time – and that is how is stayed.
Wigan, winners of the competition as recently as 2013, made six changes, as boss Paul Cook prioritised Championship survival.
Leicester dominated the ball early on, but produced nothing other than a tame 25-yard shot from Demarai Gray prior to taking the lead through Pearce’s misfortune.
Albrighton latched on to a long pass and tried to cut the ball back into Barnes, but the Wigan defender got there first and was unable to sort out his feet as the ball went into the net.
David Marshall was quickly off his line to deny Leicester a quick second.
Wigan came close to an equaliser when Danny Ward had to stretch to deny Josh Windass a tap-in from a Gavin Massey cross, with James Justin denying Kieran Dowell a debut goal with a follow-up block.
It proved an important passage of play as Leicester went down the other end and extended their lead.
Chilwell broke forward with the ball and teed-up Barnes, who cut inside and unleashed a shot that deflected and gave Marshall no chance as it dropped into the corner of the net.
Marshall then pushed away a dipping, swerving effort from Gray, while Dennis Praet came close to scoring his first Leicester goal when he headed just over.
Wigan thought they were back in the tie after 73 minutes when substitute Jamal Lowe volleyed home Pearce’s cross, but the defender was marginally offside when delivering the ball, according to VAR.
Another long-range effort from Gray brought a fine fingertip save from Marshall, who then kept the hosts at bay one last time late on when he parried away a Barnes shot.