Leicester manager Enzo Maresca was impressed with the way his young team grew into what was a “tricky” FA Cup tie at Millwall as the Championship leaders moved into the fourth round with a 3-2 victory.
Maresca made seven changes from the line-up that defeated Huddersfield on New Year’s Day with Marc Albrighton, Ricardo Pereira and Conor Coady the only experienced players in from the start.
The Foxes rode their luck at times in the first half, when their more clinical finishing was the difference, but Leicester gained more control after the break as the strength in depth of their squad was emphasised.
Maresca said: “It was a tricky game in terms of many reasons, probably the main reason is because we made many changes.
“We had a very young first XI – we had seven of our 11 players born after 2000 – so it was a tricky game, but overall we created many chances, we scored three goals and we could have scored more.
“Probably in the first half we conceded too much because we were pressing not in the perfect way.
“The second half was much better off the ball and also on the ball, we improved a lot.”
On Albrighton’s influence in what was a rare start, Maresca added: “He is fantastic, he works every day, he’s very professional, he’s a good guy who helps everyone.
“I love Marc and I’m a bit sad that I could not give him more chances, but he completely understands.”
It was Albrighton who created Leicester’s opening goal after 16 minutes when his terrific cross was headed in by Cesare Casadei at the back post.
Pereira then gave the Foxes a 2-0 lead at half-time with a fine finish before Millwall briefly put themselves back in the game through Duncan Watmore’s close-range effort.
Tom Cannon’s third strike of the week restored Leicester’s two-cushion and although Zian Flemming halved that again with four minutes left, time ran out for the Lions.
Millwall boss Joe Edwards said: “I was pleased today with how much we created from our possession.
“We’ve spoken a lot since I’ve been here that we want to have more of the ball, but the big thing is about what we’re doing when we’ve got it, and I thought the stand-out positive for us was we played out a lot.
“The outcome of it was we were playing through Leicester into the final third a lot.
“We’ve had other games where we’ve started to look like a team that’s got a clear idea in possession but not really created much, so to have that many shots is a positive.
“The flip side of that is that we made a couple of minor errors around our own box.”