Cifuentes: We Need To Keep Pushing

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Cifuentes: We Need To Keep Pushing

Martí Cifuentes is eager to take both the positives and learnings of Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Bristol City, with a third game in eight days on the horizon at the weekend.

2025-12-11T09:00+00:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

11 Dec, 2025

Cifuentes: We Need To Keep Pushing

Martí Cifuentes is eager to take both the positives and learnings of Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Bristol City, with a third game in eight days on the horizon at the weekend.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-11T09:00+00:00

Cifuentes: We Need To Keep Pushing

Martí Cifuentes is eager to take both the positives and learnings of Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Bristol City, with a third game in eight days on the horizon at the weekend.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-11T09:00+00:00

Cifuentes: We Need To Keep Pushing

Martí Cifuentes is eager to take both the positives and learnings of Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Bristol City, with a third game in eight days on the horizon at the weekend.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-11T09:00+00:00

Cifuentes: We Need To Keep Pushing

Martí Cifuentes is eager to take both the positives and learnings of Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Bristol City, with a third game in eight days on the horizon at the weekend.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-11T09:00+00:00

We drew 2-2 with Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Wednesday night
Leicester City went two goals in front courtesy of Jordan Ayew and Bobby De Cordova-Reid
The Robins hit back after half-time through Mark Sykes and then Emil Riis
Manager Martí Cifuentes was disappointed not to leave with a victory, but pointed to the positives of the first half in his analysis

Jordan Ayew’s penalty and a second goal in as many games for Bobby De Cordova-Reid had us two goals to the good at half-time at Ashton Gate. But the Robins hit back in the South West, first through Mark Sykes and then Emil Riis late on, forcing the Foxes to settle for a solitary point to take back to the East Midlands.

It was a game which City could have either won or lost in truth, with chances for both in the latter moments, with Cifuentes admitting he was disappointed at full-time.

“We started the game really well,” the Manager said. “We spoke about [how] Bristol is a team that will press a lot man-to-man, they are aggressive, both in the way they go to man-to-man marking all over the pitch, and as well the way they counter press.

“We knew that could leave space in behind. I think we understood really well, with some rotations in the midfield to find the space, the time, to get onto the ball.

“I think the first half was really, really good. We created chances, we exploited the space that they left, and it was definitely a very good first 45 minutes.

“Obviously, the second goal helped us to get an even bigger advantage, and then we spoke at half-time about the need to keep pushing, to make sure we could score the third one.

“Then, probably, the game would be over, but it's unfortunate that after just one minute the development of the second half changed. I think we panicked a little bit, we dropped too much, and credit to Bristol in the second half, they did so well.”

Analysing the second 45 more closely, he added: “In the second half, we saw they were playing with two strikers. They brought Sinclair Armstrong in and threw a lot of bodies up front.

“We knew the first 15 minutes of the second half were going to be crucial because they would leave some space and we’d have the opportunity to either to kill the game, or if you concede, the game can change.

“We spoke about certain details at half-time and we conceded from one of those details, so it’s something we need to learn from and do much better because we know there’s still a lot of games, a lot of time, to be played.

“Unfortunately, we had to be more calm, to keep possession more. The game management in that sense is alright when it’s five minutes left.

“Sometimes you just need to defend deep, but that’s not the case, it’s not what we wanted to do, so we’ll look at ourselves and make sure that we improve this kind of second half.

“Against Derby as well, we showed that it’s very important to exploit the space. We’re a team that, of course, wants to build and wants to keep the possession, but at the same time, possession is just a tool to exploit where the space is.

“I think the last two games, especially the two first halves, we understood [this] really well. Now we need to be calm enough sometimes to use the possession to control the game and that’s unfortunately perhaps what we missed in this [second] 45 minutes.

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“Credit to the team that worked really hard and understood what was needed in the first half.”

With Ipswich Town due at King Power Stadium on Saturday, the Foxes must switch their focus quickly, sitting just three points outside the top six.

“Now we need to pick ourselves up because a draw feels disappointing after the game scenario we had in front of us,” Cifuentes added.

“We came here to get the three points against a team that is in good form, but I think we have the capacity to beat anyone in this league.

“It’s disappointing to just get one point and we need to pick ourselves [up], make sure we recover well because it’s going to be only 48 hours to recover from today and we have a long trip home.

“No excuses, that’s the Championship, so we need to make sure we’re together with our fans that today were excellent and I really appreciate that they travelled in numbers to help us.

“Altogether, we’ll keep pushing. I said on day one that we need everyone, we need our fans, we need to keep pushing.

“If we get the three points against Ipswich – we’re going to try our best and push really hard to get them – then we can say that, despite it being disappointing today, it’s going to be a good week, so we need now to push for it.”

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