Leicester dishes out first defeat for Birmingham
Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira were on target in either half as Leicester City beat Birmingham City 2-0 in their EFL Championship derby clash.
It was a first defeat for Birmingham City this season, which managed just one shot on target in a disappointing display, while Leicester, relegated last season from the Premier League, made it two wins from two to move up to third on the early-season standings.
Fatawu struck in the eighth minute after Louis Page pounced on some hesitancy in the Birmingham defence and fed the ball to Fatawu, who cut back on to his favoured left foot before unleashing a superb strike into the top corner from just inside the box.
Page might have scored himself 10 minutes later after Jordan Ayew found him in the box after a strong run through the middle, but Page couldn't untangle his feet to get a shot away and the chance went begging.
Ayew was alert again immediately after the restart as he put Christoph Klarer under pressure as the Foxes pressed high, but Klarer recovered to get a foot in after Ayew stole the ball, preventing what might have been an embarrassing goal for the centre back to concede.
Bright Osayi-Samuel and Kyogo Furuhashi both fired off target for Birmingham as the second half progressed before former Leicester man Demarai Gray fired a free-kick into the wall on 78 minutes.
The rebound from that effort led to the visitors' only shot on target, but Ethan Laird's effort was saved by Jakub Stolarczyk at his near post.
With just two minutes remaining, Leicester made sure of the result, and 16-year-old star Jeremy Monga was again at the heart of it, collecting a pass on the left wing before putting a perfect cross on to the foot of the on-rushing Ricardo, who hit the back of the net with a first-time finish.
Ricardo lauded Monga for his contribution after both had emerged from the bench to combine for Leicester's second goal.
Monga became the youngest goalscorer in Championship history at 16 years and 37 days old in Leicester's 2-1 defeat to Preston North End on 17 August (AEST).
"It was a very good assist from Jeremy Monga. He said to him before he came on, let's try to make the difference and he did with the perfect ball," Ricardo said.
The Foxes have now won each of their past four home league games, something they had failed to do since April 2024, when they were last in the Championship.
"Definitely happy because it's never easy to win in this league against a good team that has done well so far," boss Martin Cifuentes said.
"We had to grind it out but at the same time credit to the players. It was a game with perhaps not many chances.
"We definitely need to improve, but at the same time, I see a team that has a soul, that has commitment, desire and that's the foundation of everything that we want to build here."
For Chris Davies and his Birmingham side, it proved to not be their day in front of goal.
"We're disappointed to lose the game – I thought we had the lion's share of the game, were strong and dominant throughout," Davies said.
"I thought we disrupted Leicester and played well with the ball until the final bit when we couldn't create clear chances.
"A lot of it was good but it was a poor opening goal to concede although we recovered well from that but then a poor second goal to concede and it's difficult to take."
Leicester City will travel to Oxford United after the international break for its next league match on 13 September (AEST), while Birmingham will look to bounce back when it travels to Stoke City.
