Wednesday 4th March 2020
Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round
at the King Power Stadium
Leicester City (0) 1
Ricardo Pereira 82
Ricardo Pereira 82
Birmingham City (0) 0
Attendance: 27,181 (inc. 5,129 away fans)
Leicester beat Championship clubs in both of the previous rounds of this competition, seeing off Wigan Athletic at home and Brentford away, without conceding a single goal in either game. So they kept that record intact tonight, with this narrow win
Blues laboured to beat Blackburn Rovers at St. Andrew's in the third round, before making even harder work of seeing off Coventry City after a replay, that was settled on penalties, after extra time. Of course, both games against the Sky Blues. were played at St. Andrew's, which has been Birmingham City's home since 1906, while 'Cov' have been dossing down on the sofa there as lodgers this season, while they've needed somewhere to play games outside the boundaries of their home-turf.
This season's fifth round FA Cup games are being played in midweek, because otherwise, the fixtures would've clashed with the staggered winter break that Premier League teams have been enjoying.
So while the grassroots end of the game is struggling to get games on, while the inclement weather is causing a massive backlog of fixtures, the teams that are creaming all of the cash out of the game at the top end of the pecking order, continue to complain about playing too many games in cup competitions, but can still find the time to take a week off halfway through the season... not to mention all of the international money-spinning tournaments they jet off to play in during the Summer months.
The manner in which those at the top of the game have wilfully devalued the FA Cup, as a means to serve their own greedy ends is, to be frank, effing obscene.
The Foxes had suffered a blip in form of late, but still occupy third place in the top flight, seven points adrift of second-placed Manchester City and a massive twenty nine points behind runaway leaders Liverpool, who even I would risk predicting might just be en route to pick up their first Premier League title... or at least get a quote on the odds to put ten bob on them each way.
Either way, Leicester look more likely than any of the chasing pack, to finish in a top four place, that will guarantee them a Champions League spot next season.
Blues on the other hand arrived in the East Midlands unbeaten in their last thirteen games, a run that they extended with a hard won away point at Queens Park Rangers at the weekend, while Brendan Rogers side slipped to a 0-1 defeat at Norwich City in an attritional encounter at Carrow Road, which saw them chalk their fifth game in a row without a win... and third on the trot without scoring.
Birmingham currently sit in fifteenth place in the Championship, nine points off of the running for a play-off berth and eight clear of being roped into a relegation battle, hence 5,129 Blues fans descended on Leicester, travelling more in hope than expectation, that their team might keep the embers of the current season glowing a bit longer with the added interest of a cup run.
Realistically, it was always going to be about a containment and counter-attack approach by the visitors tonight... and to that end they worked hard, kept their shape and were superbly organised in a game of few clear cut chances, but as extra-time beckoned the Foxes finally broke Birmingham's resolve, when Ben Chilwell's cross from the left looking fr Kelechi Iheanacho at the back stick, found it's way through to Marc Albrighton, to the right of Blues goal, who tussled with Kristian Pedersen, but managed to lift the ball back towards the six yard box at the second attempt, where Ricardo Pereira glanced a header beyond the reach of Lee Camp, despite the close attention of Harlee Dean.
So while the grassroots end of the game is struggling to get games on, while the inclement weather is causing a massive backlog of fixtures, the teams that are creaming all of the cash out of the game at the top end of the pecking order, continue to complain about playing too many games in cup competitions, but can still find the time to take a week off halfway through the season... not to mention all of the international money-spinning tournaments they jet off to play in during the Summer months.
The manner in which those at the top of the game have wilfully devalued the FA Cup, as a means to serve their own greedy ends is, to be frank, effing obscene.
Either way, Leicester look more likely than any of the chasing pack, to finish in a top four place, that will guarantee them a Champions League spot next season.
Blues on the other hand arrived in the East Midlands unbeaten in their last thirteen games, a run that they extended with a hard won away point at Queens Park Rangers at the weekend, while Brendan Rogers side slipped to a 0-1 defeat at Norwich City in an attritional encounter at Carrow Road, which saw them chalk their fifth game in a row without a win... and third on the trot without scoring.
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| Typo alert* Jonathan Moss was the referee, not Ross! That would've been interwesting. |
Realistically, it was always going to be about a containment and counter-attack approach by the visitors tonight... and to that end they worked hard, kept their shape and were superbly organised in a game of few clear cut chances, but as extra-time beckoned the Foxes finally broke Birmingham's resolve, when Ben Chilwell's cross from the left looking fr Kelechi Iheanacho at the back stick, found it's way through to Marc Albrighton, to the right of Blues goal, who tussled with Kristian Pedersen, but managed to lift the ball back towards the six yard box at the second attempt, where Ricardo Pereira glanced a header beyond the reach of Lee Camp, despite the close attention of Harlee Dean.
Dean had thwarted Leicester's best opening thus far when he got in the way of James Maddison's long range strike and deflected the ball against the crossbar, but clear cut chances had been at a premium, in spite of the Premier League side upping the ante after half time and keeping Blues on the back foot for the majority of the second half, after a fairly even open forty five minutes.
Prior to Pereira's goal, the vast majority of chances at either end amounted to shots that were charged down or blocked by two well drilled defences, which is exactly how the game reached it's conclusion, when just moments after Lukas Jutkiewicz had shot over Kasper Schmeichel's bar, Dean's thumping effort from the edge of the hosts area, saw Chilwell make a last ditch clearance from almost on the goal line.
Pep Clotet and his staff knew that they couldn't adopt a gung-ho approach against a team of Leicester's quality and set out their stall accordingly. Ultimately they were never outplayed nor outclassed by their esteemed hosts and deserve a lot of credit for a hard working and focused shift.
Prior to Pereira's goal, the vast majority of chances at either end amounted to shots that were charged down or blocked by two well drilled defences, which is exactly how the game reached it's conclusion, when just moments after Lukas Jutkiewicz had shot over Kasper Schmeichel's bar, Dean's thumping effort from the edge of the hosts area, saw Chilwell make a last ditch clearance from almost on the goal line.
Pep Clotet and his staff knew that they couldn't adopt a gung-ho approach against a team of Leicester's quality and set out their stall accordingly. Ultimately they were never outplayed nor outclassed by their esteemed hosts and deserve a lot of credit for a hard working and focused shift.
Blues return to Championship action against Reading at the weekend, in the first of three home games this month, all against teams below them in the table, looking to pick up as many points as they can, to finish the season as highly placed as possible... they also have a West Midlands derby at league leaders West Bromwich Albion coming up on March 14th, for which the away allocation of tickets already sold out fairly quickly.
Leicester will now play Chelsea at home in the next round and have the opportunity to string a couple of wins together in the interim, when they face relegation threatened Aston Villa at home and Watford away, though as Jurgen Klopp could testify, they would do well not to underestimate the latter of those teams.
