Millwall 2-3 Leicester City: Player ratings as the foxes march into the next round
Leicester City extend their unbeaten run to 11 matches, after defeating Millwall 3-2 at The Den. Goals from Cesare Casadei, Ricardo Pereira and Tom Cannon were enough to overcome the home sides battling display. Despite Enzo Maresca making wholesale changes to the side that beat Huddersfield last weekend, the foxes showed great resilience to hold on for what turned out to be a very gritty victory. Atypical of the majority of the East Midland's wins this season. Here are the player ratings for today's FA cup win.
Starting XI:
Jakub Stolarczyk: 7
A very well rounded performance from the young goalkeeper. His composure and overall quality when distributing has improved tremendously since his last appearance. While also being solid in the shot stopping department.
Ricardo Pereira: 8
Playing in his more comfortable role as a conventional right-back, the Leicester City captain was the best player on the pitch. His attacking play was exceptional especially when starting the move and the finishing attack for City's second goal. His defensive work was also great throughout the tie.
Ben Nelson: 6
A decent display by the debutant, looked fairly good in possession and competed well in his individual duals.
Conor Coady: 6
Despite the foxes conceding two goals it was however a rather competent defensive display from the most senior centre-back on the pitch. He made some vital blocks and tackles at extremely pivotal moments in the tie. This coupled with some good distribution gives him a respectable score.
Callum Doyle: 5
You do have to give the benefit of the doubt to the 19-year-old, with it being his first start to a game back since his lengthy injury. Defensively he looked laboured, however going forward especially, his progressive passes were of high accuracy. A casing point being his assist for Cannon's goal.
Hamza Choudhury: 6
A professional performance by Choudhury, he showed up defensively at important times in the match. Breaking up play brilliantly. His on the ball work was also good, rotating the ball and being a useful cog in the Maresca possession machine.
Cesare Casadei: 7
Massive improvement from the Chelsea loanee, with a goal and an assist in the first half and his final third play was significantly better. He showed great physicality throughout the tie and wasn't overawed by what is usually a difficult ground to play in.
Yunus Akgun: 6
Once again in a more advanced role as the hybrid "10/8" he showed much greater composure and positionally he looked much more comfortable receiving the ball. A promising display by the Turkish international.
Wanya Marcal-Madivadua: 2
By far the least effective City player on the pitch, showed an inability to consistently beat his opposing full-back, while also giving very little for his teamates with his attacking movements. An opportunity to show his talents sorely missed by the 21-year-old.
Marc Albrighton: 5
A very typical Albrighton display in this contest. Nothing flashy, a great assist for the opening goal, perfectly picking out the head of Casadei at Millwall's back post. Of course showed great effort for all 90 minutes and once more showed how important he is for this sides squad rotation needs.
Tom Cannon: 7
Took his goal wonderfully, an expertly timed run and then showing great composure round the goalkeeper and slot into the empty net. Although he had little involvement other than his goal, he did his job as a centre-forward marvellously.
Substitutes:
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall: 5
Due to the manner in which LCFC struggled to keep possession not only in the whole tie but also when KDH entered the frame, the academy graduate really struggled to have any effect on the outcome of the tie. Thus a default five is given.
Tawanda Maswanhise: 5
Since the Zimbabwean had little to no opportunity to make an impact on the game, a default score is given.