Enzo Maresca admits Leicester were ‘lucky’ at times during Birmingham FA Cup win

Posted Sunday, January 28, 2024 by PA

Enzo Maresca conceded Leicester rode their luck en route to booking their place in the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win against Birmingham.

Birmingham spurned a number of first-half chances before Foxes striker Jamie Vardy opened the scoring after 47 minutes with his first goal in over two months from Marc Albrighton’s cross.

Yunus Akgun smashed his first Leicester goal into the top-left corner from the edge of the penalty area after 72 minutes before Dennis Praet sealed the win two minutes from time with a confident finish from substitute Tom Cannon’s cutback.

Maresca said: “We were lucky in the first half, they had many chances. The second half was much better, we controlled the game and made some tactical adjustments.

“A big part of the final result is down to Jakub (Stolarczyk’s) saves in the first half, that gave us the opportunity to still be in the game in the second half.

“(The first goal) was like 2016, it was fantastic, I’m happy for Jamie because it’s always important for a striker to score goals and also happy for Marc for the assist.

“I’m especially happy for the seven or eight players 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 in the way we like to play with the ball.

“I was very calm (at half-time), I was ready for the first half, it’s normal that we struggled with 10 new players in the team.”

Blues manager Tony Mowbray could not believe his team were not in front at the break after a number of good chances went begging as he suffered a first defeat as Birmingham boss.

Mowbray said: “We could have been four-nil up, maybe five, at half-time, we squandered some pretty good chances, 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 from us.

“The players have seen the identity and how hard they have to work, if they don’t bring it they won’t be playing, they either want to come on the journey or they don’t.

“Who can criticise anybody for the first-half performance? Everybody did their job and a bit of somebody else’s job and the rewards were there for all to see.

“It was difficult to comprehend that we didn’t come in winning the game at half-time but we had to accept it and try and repeat it but we couldn’t.”