Jamie Vardy scored his first objective since November as Championship leaders Leicester weathered a storm from Birmingham, strugglers in the identical division, to achieve the fifth spherical of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win on the King Energy Stadium.
Birmingham, beforehand unbeaten in 4 matches since Tony Mowbray succeeded Wayne Rooney, had dominated the primary half alternatives. Jay Stansfield hit the publish and Jakub Stolarczyk, the Leicester keeper, needed to make 5 saves within the opening 45.
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After a clearly unimpressed Leicester supervisor Enzo Maresca made three half-time substitutions, bringing on James Justin, Ricardo Pereira and Kasey McAteer, it was the outdated agency of Marc Albrighton, 34, and Vardy, 37, who broke the impasse simply two minutes into the second half. The veteran winger’s cross from the proper wing discovered an unmarked Vardy to nod in his first FA Cup objective since 2018. He was quickly denied a second when the offside flag was raised.
That didn’t have an effect on Birmingham’s impetus as they continued to rain down photographs on the Leicester objective, solely to concede one other within the 72nd minute. Yunus Akgun, on mortgage from Galatasaray, fired an absolute rocket previous John Ruddy from the sting of the penalty space to double the house group’s benefit. Birmingham’s earlier fireplace now extinguished, it was left to Dennis Praet to finish Leicester’s win with a neat end from a Tom Cannon cut-back two minutes from time.
In one other all-Championship tie, Leeds dominated Plymouth within the first half at Elland Street but had been compelled to accept a 1-1 draw and a replay. Georginio Rutter’s early diving header compelled Argyle keeper Conor Hazard right into a full-length save after which the identical Leeds ahead noticed his cross drift off the crossbar. Hazard made one other advantageous first-half save, this time from Wilfried Gnonto.
Within the thirty first minute, Jaidon Anthony scored Leeds’ opening objective, finishing a slaloming solo run by way of Plymouth’s defence with a crashing right-foot shot. Anthony, on mortgage from Bournemouth, celebrated his objective with an emotional tribute to his mom, who died lately. The referee, Lancashire’s Lewis Smith, booked Anthony for lifting his shirt to disclose the message to his mom.
Leeds did not convert their territorial dominance into a transparent lead and Adam Randell, on as a second-half sub, accomplished an end-to-end counterattack to shoot move Ilan Meslier after Matt Butcher had despatched Mustapha Bundu, one other sub, away down the left. Plymouth scored their 73rd-minute objective throughout a spell when Ian Foster, appointed earlier in January, made modifications from the bench to grab the momentum from Daniel Farke’s group.
In a helter-skelter end, Patrick Bamford, on as a late sub, from a Junior Firpo move, was denied by the wonderful Hazard, who had made a sequence of advantageous saves. A replay means Leeds must make two lengthy journeys to Devon in February, a Championship encounter between the 2 golf equipment is already scheduled for 17 February, a Saturday lunchtime kick-off. An additional match can be an unwelcome addition to Leeds’ workload as they battle for an automated promotion place.
