Millwall 2-3 Leicester City: FLW report as Foxes reach the FA Cup fourth round | OneFootball

Leicester City are in the hat for the fourth round of the FA Cup after holding off Championship rivals Millwall for a 3-2 win at The Den on Saturday lunchtime.

A much-changed Foxes XI lacked their usual fluency but showed their clinical edge.

Goals from Cesare Casadei and Ricardo Pereira put them 2-0 up at the break and then Tom Cannon's third in two games, sandwiched between set piece strikes from Duncan Watmore and Zian Flemming ensured their passage to the next round despite a nervy finish.

In the end it was quality in the final third that proved the difference, which is further evidence that while progress is being made under Joe Edwards, the South Londoners seriously lack firepower.

The seven changes that Enzo Maresca had made meant the Championship leaders were looser than we come to expect and Millwall were more than happy to make the most of the space in behind that the visitors' expansive passing style left open.

Watmore and Joe Bryan both raced through dangerously in the first 10 minutes. The former forced the first save out of Jakub Stolarcyzk while Danny McNamara stung the Foxes' keeper's gloves as well.

But the Lions' strong start came undone on 15 minutes as Casadei crashed a header past Matija Sarkic to give the visitors the lead. Marc Albrighton rolled back the years by hanging up a delicious cross to the back post and the Chelsea loanee overpowered Ryan Leonard to head in the opener.

Against a full-strength Leicester side, going behind early can be fatal but against this much-changed XI were always likely to offer the hosts chances to level and you sensed Edwards' team were well aware of that fact.

Nine minutes after the goal, a poor clearance from Storalarczyk allowed Billy Mitchell to cleverly pick out Watmore, who slalomed through the Leicester defence and forced a diving save out of the Polish shot-stopper.

Joe Bryan was next to let fly, seeing his powerful strike blocked by Conor Coady, but Millwall's best chance of the half fell to Jake Cooper. The centre-back has been such a set piece threat during his lengthy South London tenure but put a free header from a corner over the top 11 minutes before the break - a miss that would be punished.

The Foxes may not have been at their best but they showed their ruthlessness by bagging a second, against the run of play, five minutes later. Ben Nelson, on his starting debut, fired a pass into Casadei 20 yards from goal and the Italian's delightful first time flick allowed Pereira to race through and beat a hesitant Sarkic.

The good news for Millwall was that there was no sign of Leicester looking to shut up shop in the second half and 11 minutes after the restart they had one back.

Just minutes after a full-stretch Sarkic had stopped Cannon scoring a third for the visitors, Flemming rose highest at a corner and his header was cleverly diverted into the net from close range by Watmore.

Millwall's joy was short-lived. Callum Doyle's long ball forward tempted Sarkic into rushing out of his goal but, having timed his run off the shoulder perfectly, Cannon got to the ball first, knocking it past the Lions keeper, who was left in no man's land, and finishing coolly from out wide.

It's been quite the week for the summer signing, who has three goals in his first two starts for the Foxes and nearly added a fourth in the 69th minute - galloping through on goal to collect another ball forward but this time putting his effort the wrong side of the post. Cannon went close again as we entered the final 10 minutes, blasting a shot at Sarkic, who stood up well and then denied Albrighton with his feet from the rebound.

Millwall were not done, though, and a clever set piece routine saw them close the gap to just one goal five minutes from time. Flemming peeled away to find space and volleyed Bryan's deep corner in from 12 yards out to give new life to their hopes of staying in the FA Cup.

A frenzied five minutes of stoppage time didn't bring an equaliser but there was no let up in drama. First, Cooper's glancing header was gobbled up by Stolarczyk, then the central defender luckily escaped conceding a penalty for a clear push on Cannon, and finally, Flemming whipped a free-kick just past the post.

Foxes into the fourth round, then. Plenty of positives for Edwards but in truth, Millwall can have no complaints about exiting the FA Cup at the third round for the fourth year in a row.

Millwall player ratings

Matija Sarkic - 6

Danny McNamara - 6

Ryan Leonard - 5 (Ryan Longman (42) - 6)

Jake Cooper - 6

Wes Harding - 6

Joe Bryan - 6

Billy Mitchell - 7

George Honeyman - 6

Duncan Watmore - 8 (Romain Esse (77) - 6)

Zian Flemming - 7

Kevin Nisbet - 5 (Tom Bradshaw (67) - 6)

Unused subs: Connal Trueman, Allan Campbell, Kamarl Grant, George Walker, Sashiel Adom-Malaki, Sha'Mar Lawson

Leicester player ratings

Jakub Storlarczyk - 6

Ricardo Pereira - 7

Conor Coady - 7

Ben Nelson - 7

Callum Doyle - 6

Marc Albrighton - 7

Hamza Choudhury - 6

Cesare Casadei - 8

Yunus Akgun - 6 (Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (72) - 6)

Wanya Marcal - 5 (Tawanda Maswanhise (77) - 6)

Tom Cannon - 7

Unused subs: Danny Ward, James Justin, Wout Faes, Harry Winks, Stephy Mahvidi, Abdul Fatawu, Jannik Vestergaard,

Attendance

The attendance for Millwall v Leicester at The Den was 10,092.

That includes 2,967 travelling Foxes fans.

Edwards picked out "a lot of positives" from the Millwall performance but admitted that his side were second best in both boxes.

"I was pleased with how much we created from our possession," he said. "We've spoken about that since I've come in, that we want to have more of the ball but the big thing is about what we do when we've got it.

"I thought the stand out positive for us today was that we played out a lot, from our goalkeeper going short into the defenders, but I think the outcome of it was that we were playing through Leicester and getting into their final third a lot.

"We've had other games where we've started to look like a team that has a clear idea in possession but not really created much so to have that many shots is a positive but the flip side of that is we make a couple of minor errors in and around our box, combined with the quality they've got, and before you know it you're 2-0 and scratching your head.

"I thought we were probably the better team between the two boxes but in both boxes they dominated. They were clinical in ours and we weren't quite in theirs. A lot of positives in the performance."

Enzo Maresca post-match reaction

Maresca accepted that his side were not at their best but still did enough to win a difficult game despite plenty of rotation.

"A good game, especially because it was a tricky game," he said. "That was mainly because we made many changes and had a very young first XI. 7 of 11 players born after 2000.

"It was a tricky game but we created many chances, we scored three goals, and we could've scored more. Probably first half we conceded too much because we were pressing not in the perfect way.

"Second half was much better off the ball and also on the ball we improved a lot."