Leicester City set up potential local derby in FA Cup Round Five

The Foxes are set to play either Coventry City or Birmingham City following the FA Cup Fifth Round draw.

Leicester City set up potential local derby in FA Cup Round Five
The Foxes will welcome either Coventry City or Birmingham City in the FA Cup Fifth Round | Photo: Getty/ Daniel Chesterton/ Offside
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By Daniel Orme

Leicester City have set up a potential local derby in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, playing either Coventry City or Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium

The tie is subject to the replay between the two teams at St Andrews following a 0-0 draw in the first match at the weekend. The Fifth Round clash is set to take place in the East Midlands between the third to the fifth of March.

Mouth-watering

Should the Sky Blues progress from their Fourth Round replay in just over a week's time, it will set up a tantalising M69 derby, a match that has not been played at all since 2012. That day, goals from Jermaine Beckford and David Nugent saw Leicester claim a valuable local derby victory.

Since then, the two sides have been swapping leagues, with currently two levels of the English league pyramid separating them, with the Foxes flying high in the Premier League, whilst Coventry remain in League One. As a matter  of fact, they have not met at any stage of the FA Cup in over 20 years.

Meanwhile, the Foxes have not come up against Birmingham in any competitive action since a 2-1 success at St Andrews during the 2013/14 season when the club cantered to the Championship title under Nigel Pearson

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Chance for silverware?

Whichever team that Brendan Rodgers' European challengers face in the Fifth Round, it will give them yet more of a chance to lift their first piece of silverware under the Northern-Irishman. Having already played Wigan Athletic and Brentford in the competition, the tie would see them come up against their third-successive lower-league opponents. 

Again, that would give the team confidence of progressing to the quarter-finals for just the second time in the last six seasons and potentially lifting a trophy having already reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup this campaign.