Daily Mirror - 05.03.2020

(^56) DAILY MIRROR THURSDAY 05.03.2020
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PRE-MATCH ON
DERBY COUNTY
v MANCHESTER UNITED
IF A GOAL IS SCORED
IN BOTH HALVES
GET A
Leicester city 1 birmingham 0
Pereira 82
fa cup
fifth round
LEICESTER: Schmeichel 6, Pereira 8,
Evans 6, Soyuncu 6, Chilwell 6, Ndidi 6
(Tielemans 61, 6), Albrighton 7, Praet
6, Maddison 8 (Choudhury 84, 6),
Gray 5 (Barnes 66, 6), Iheanacho 6
BIRmIngham: Camp 6, Colin 7, Dean
7, Clarke-Salter 7, Pedersen 7, Harding
6 (Gardner 71, 6), Sunjic 6, Kieftenbeld
6 (Montero 84), Mrabti 6 (Crowley 84,
6), Jutkiewicz 6, Hogan 6
REF: Jonathan Moss aT T: 2 7,1 8 1
match stats
77% possession 23%
2 shots on target 1
5 shots off target 2
(^4) corners (^3)
(^2) offside (^0)
(^8) fouls (^9)
(^1 0) cards (^1 0)

PERFECT TIMING!

Pereira stops the rot as he heads late winner to send Foxes into quarter-finals

RICaRDO PEREIRa

headed Leicester into the

quarter-finals with a late

winner to see off dogged

Birmingham.

Leicester were in danger of

fresh cup frustration after

being dumped out of the

Carabao Cup semi-finals by a

late Aston Villa goal.

The hosts were

unconvincing for most of the

first half of this clash with

Villa’s Second City neighbours.

But their dominant second-

half display paid off eight

minutes from time when

Pereira nodded in his fourth

goal of the season from Marc

Albrighton’s cross.

It was the Foxes’ first win in

six games in all

competitions. Despite

remaining third in the

Premier League, boss

Brendan Rodgers had

admitted his side were

low on confidence.

He picked a strong side

in pursuit of a morale-boosting

win, making just three changes

from their defeat at bottom-

club Norwich with Albrighton,

Wilfred Ndidi and Demarai

Gray coming in.

And the hosts flew out of the

traps as James Maddison put

an early shot over and Ben

Chilwell had an effort

deflected narrowly wide.

But Birmingham,

unbeaten in 13 games,

weathered the storm

and looked danger-

ous on the break.

Kerim Mrabti had a

shot deflected wide

before front-man Lukas

Jutkiewicz shot straight at

Kasper Schmeichel (above).

Jutkiewicz had another

effort on goal in the 19th

minute then flashed a low

free-kick wide.

Pep Clotet’s underdogs

carried a threat going forward

while retaining a disciplined

shape.

Keeper Lee Camp did well to

palm away a Maddison cross

after the England star tricked

his way into the box.

But the first half illustrated

why Leicester, without top

scorer Jamie Vardy, had not

scored in three Premier League

games.

They started to turn the

screw after the break as

Kelechi Iheanacho shot

straight at Camp.

Maddison curled a right-

foot free-kick around the wall

and into the side netting. He

went even closer in the 68th

minute with a rising left-foot

shot from outside the box

which hit the bar.

Iheanacho then had the ball

in the back of the net, but his

effort was offside.

The second half was all

Leicester, but they struggled to

work Camp. When Pereira

fizzed over a low cross,

Chilwell blasted over.

But they finally broke the

deadlock after Albrighton did

superbly on the right to beat

Kristian Pedersen and cross.

And there was right-back

Pereira in the six-yard box to

glance it into the far corner.

By james nursey

@JamesNursey

Ricardo Pereira

heads home eight

minutes from time

for Leicester

RIC TO THE

RESCUE