Leicester City progressed through to the quarter finals of the FA Cup on Wednesday evening after a late Ricardo header sealed a 1-0 win against Birmingham City.
The game was dominated by an almost full strength Foxes side that included eight of the 11 starters from last Friday’s game against Norwich in the Premier League. Wilfred Ndidi, Marc Albrighton and Demarai Gray were all brought in.
After a first half with limited chances for both sides, Leicester came out rampant in the second period. The Birmingham box was bombarded with a flurry of crosses as the Blues struggled to cope with the pace out wide and the overlapping runs of Ricardo and Ben Chilwell.
With only nine minutes to go, the pressure finally paid off. Albrighton dinked a ball into the area and Ricardo claimed his fifth goal of the season with a flicked header into the bottom corner, sending Leicester through to the next round.
‘‘It was a very good win for us’’
Speaking to LCFC TV, Brendan Rodgers revealed he thought his team were excellent and performed well against a resilient Birmingham City side.
He stated: “I thought it was a very good performance, Birmingham are a team that, as you’ve seen from their record since the turn of the year, haven’t lost a game.
“That tells you there’s a resilience there and Leicester City supporters will know from being in the Championship, when you’re a Championship team playing against a Premier League team, you’re always going to raise your game that extra percentage as well.''
He added: “I thought we were excellent, in particular in the second half. The tempo of our game was better, and we denied them the space much better in the second half.
‘’It was a very good win for us, and we were delighted to get to the quarter-finals.’’
‘’This is about pride’’
When speaking further to BBC Radio Leicester, Rodgers praised his team’s commitment and was happy with the way they dug in to seal the win.
He said: ‘’Our game was much like how we play when we’re working well. That commitment, the tempo, the intensity. I said to the players before the game, this is about pride.
‘’When it became a war in the last five minutes with the ball getting chucked in the box, we stood up to that and kept a clean sheet - players dug in when they had to.’’
‘’A great opportunity to get to Wembley!’’
The Foxes boss also shared his thoughts on facing Chelsea at the King Power Stadium in the next round.
He stated: ‘’We’re happy to be at home. The quarter final of any cup competition, you want to be playing a good team, a tough team.
‘’We’re at home, we’ve our supporters here, we’ve got a great opportunity to get to Wembley!’’
