Leicester City 2-0 Birmingham City: FLW report as Abdul Fatawu stars to end Birmingham unbeaten start | OneFootball

FLW report live from the King Power Stadium as Abdul Fatawu impresses in Leicester's win v Birmingham.

Leicester City made it three wins from four at the start of Marti Cifuentes' reign with a 2-0 success over Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium, ending Blues' unbeaten Championship record in the process.

After netting his first of the campaign with the winner at Charlton Athletic last time out, in-demand winger Abdul Fatawu opened his home account with a smart finish after just eight minutes following a defensive mishap. The vastly-experienced Ricardo Pereira killed the game off two minutes from time after he connected with Jeremy Monga's deep cross from the left flank.

In what was dubbed as a crucial early-season encounter, Cifuentes' side moved up to third ahead of Saturday's results. Chris Davies returned to the club where he was previously assistant, and the 40-year-old saw Blues follow up their EFL Cup exit at the hands of Port Vale with another below-par performance in the East Midlands as they drop into seventh.

Leicester City 2-0 Birmingham City

After a nip and tuck opening period, Cifuentes men would take the lead with the very first meaningful attempt of the encounter. A lapse in concentration from Seung-Ho Paik and Ethan Laird allowed youngster Louis Page to intercept and find Fatawu, who utilised his dynamism to full effect, drifting into the box to score his second in as many games with a stunning effort which flew past Ryan Allsop.

Birmingham looked to respond immediately, although fine defensive work from Hamza Choudhury allowed the Foxes to clear their lines before a fizzing Bright Osayi-Samuel cross could reach the onrushing Lewis Koumas. A last-ditch intervention from Christoph Klarer then denied Page a golden chance to double Leicester's advantage after Jordan Ayew spun his way past Tomoki Iwata.

Iwata looked to find the target himself after 31 minutes. Luke Thomas was only able to half-clear an over-the-top ball from Klarer, although the Japanese midfielder's curling strike caused no issue for Jakub Stolarczyk.

Demarai Gray then looked to force the issue amid a hostile reception on his return to the King Power, with the winger also seeing a low cross intercepted by the hosts' defence before it could reach the largely ineffective Kyogo Furuhashi.

Following a sustained period of possession, it was the visitors who carved out the final opportunity of the opening 45. Another corner from Gray would come to no avail, although many in Blue were left thankful a scramble involving two deflections was eventually cleared to safety in the half's final seconds.

It was almost a calamitous start to the second period for Davies' side as a Klarer flick-on from Laird's initial backpass was almost successfully anticipated by the pressing Ayew, but the experienced Ghanaian was unable to nip in and round Allsop. Gray looked to immediately get his side back on level terms and picked out Osayi-Samuel, who mistimed his connection from just inside the box.

Kyogo was able to fashion his first attempt of the night after a succession of corners 10 minutes into the half, with the summer signing's half-volley looping narrowly over Stolarczyk's net after the Foxes were unable to fully clear their lines once more. The early pressure then saw Osayi-Samuel advance past Luke Thomas, although Willum Willumsson saw his effort blocked after Paik's decision to play in the Icelandic playmaker rather than go for goal himself.

Patson Daka went in search of his first goal of the season shortly after replacing Page, but the Zambian's long-range, powerful strike was always rising high of the mark.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, Birmingham were handed yet another prime opportunity to draw level after the recently introduced Pereira's strong challenge, forcing the striker to be replaced by Marvin Ducksch in the process. It continued to be Leicester's night as the subsequent free-kick from Gray deflected into Laird's path, with Stolarczyk and Jannick Vestergaard's efforts seeing the ball behind for a corner which was narrowly headed over by Klarer.

The travelling supporters then saw appeals for a penalty waved away by Josh Smith as Ducksch fell under pressure from Vestergaard after the German looked to connect with yet another slide-rule pass from Gray.

However, those from the West Midlands would rue the catalogue of missed chances two minutes from time as the substitute combination of Monga and Pereira combined to kill the contest, with the Portuguese right-back smartly turning home a pinpoint delivery from his 16-year-old teammate.

Amidst the off-field frustrations in this part of the East Midlands, it represents an early-season statement for Leicester against a side some are tipping to also be among the promotion mix.

FT: Leicester City 2-0 Birmingham City

Player Ratings

Leicester City

Jakub Stolarczyk - 6.5

Hamza Choudhury - 7 (Pereira 72" - 7.5)

Caleb Okoli - 7

Jannik Vestergaard - 7

Luke Thomas - 6.5

Boubakary Soumare - 7

Oliver Skipp - 7

Abdul Fatawu - 8 (Faes 87" - 6)

Louis Page - 7.5 (Daka 56" - 6)

Stephy Mavididi - 6.5 (Monga 72" - 7)

Jordan Ayew - 6.5

Unused Subs: Asmir Begovic, Ben Nelson, Harry Winks, Silko Thomas, Olabade Aluko

Birmingham City

Ryan Allsop - 6

Bright Osayi-Samuel - 6.5

Phil Neumann - 6.5 (Dykes 86" - 6)

Christoph Klarer - 7

Ethan Laird - 6.5

Seung-Ho Paik - 6

Tomoki Iwata - 6

Willum Willumsson - 6 (Anderson 66" - 6)

Lewis Koumas - 6 (Doyle 77" - 6)

Demarai Gray - 6.5

Kyogo Furuhashi - 6 (Ducksch 77" - 6)

Unused Subs: James Beadle, Eiran Cashin, Alex Cochrane, Marc Leonard, Taylor Gardner-Hickman

Leicester City vs Birmingham City Attendance

The attendance at the King Power Stadium for this 'Midlands Derby' was 30,791.

This included a sold-out away end of 3,237 Blues supporters.

Marti Cifuentes reacts as Leicester City defeat Birmingham City

Reacting to his side's victory heading into the international break, Cifuentes admitted: "First of all, I'm happy, because it's never easy to win football games.

"Definitely a lot of positives, things to build on, a lot of things to keep improving because that's where we are. But for me, probably, the most important thing is they were two very good goals. I'm very happy with the assists from Louis (Page) and Jeremy (Monga), the benches' impact in the second half, Abdul scoring a good goal again and a good performance," he added.

"I would say, the thing that pleased me most was the character and personality of the team. I see guys that care, that want to do their best, that if we need to block a shot in the 90th minute, we do it. I think we can press high in the 80th minute and, despite winning 1-0, we tried to do that.

"It wasn't easy though," Cifuentes claimed. "For some moments, we were too deep. I don't like that, and I think we need to learn how to control games through the ball being much higher up the pitch.

"But it's a process. Today, I think the foundations of what we want to build is there. I would say that, in the last two games, I'm seeing a team that is showing character, working for each other, doing hard work and the spirit is there - the whole bench is jumping when we score the second goal."

Chris Davies' verdict as Birmingham City suffer Leicester City defeat

Addressing the media post-match, Davies remained encouraged by elements of Blues' performance despite the end result.

"It's a difficult one to take," he began. "I think you can say 'we lost 2-0', but it wasn't a 2-0 game looking at it, at all.

"I thought we conceded a really poor goal on our part, no doubt about that, to start the game, which is a big setback coming to a place like this. But, we recovered really well.

"You'd have to put into context how Leicester want (to) and normally play to understand the way we played today," the ex-Foxes assistant explained. "They're normally very aggressive in their pressing, dominate games, they've had the most possession out of any team in the league, and they've been good.

"Obviously, we've come to their stadium tonight, and I liked a lot of what I saw after that goal," he stated. "I thought we looked calm, controlled and composed with the ball. We worked it well, pressed them every time they had it - they kicked the ball out of play so many times.

"But, when we got the ball with all that territory towards their box, we didn't put them under pressure enough with crosses, pressure, and then you would have created more chances.

"Right at the end, obviously, they go up, very few times they'd been near our box and they have that chop-chop cross and a goal.

"I did feel for the players and I wanted to pick them up in the dressing room as they're gutted they've lost the game. But, it's playing well and performing well generally that will get you points over time. A lot of what I saw tonight, I liked," Davies claimed.