The Reaction We Wanted, Says Cifuentes

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The Reaction We Wanted, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes hailed the ‘excellent’ first-half performance which powered our 3-1 win at Derby County and the contribution of the whole squad across the 90 minutes at Pride Park.

2025-12-07T08:00+00:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

07 Dec, 2025

The Reaction We Wanted, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes hailed the ‘excellent’ first-half performance which powered our 3-1 win at Derby County and the contribution of the whole squad across the 90 minutes at Pride Park.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-07T08:00+00:00

The Reaction We Wanted, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes hailed the ‘excellent’ first-half performance which powered our 3-1 win at Derby County and the contribution of the whole squad across the 90 minutes at Pride Park.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-07T08:00+00:00

The Reaction We Wanted, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes hailed the ‘excellent’ first-half performance which powered our 3-1 win at Derby County and the contribution of the whole squad across the 90 minutes at Pride Park.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-07T08:00+00:00

The Reaction We Wanted, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes hailed the ‘excellent’ first-half performance which powered our 3-1 win at Derby County and the contribution of the whole squad across the 90 minutes at Pride Park.

Sam Stevens

2025-12-07T08:00+00:00

Manager Martí Cifuentes offers his response to our 3-1 success at Derby County
Goals from Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Oliver Skipp and Jordan James handed Leicester City the East Midlands bragging rights
We were three goals to the good inside the opening 31 minutes in Derby
The fast start and determined finish both pleased the Manager

Ending a run of two consecutive defeats with an authoritative, morale-boosting victory over our East Midlands neighbours, it was a result which sent over 3,000 members of the Blue Army back to Leicester in a jubilant mood.

Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Oliver Skipp and Jordan James got the goals inside the opening 31 minutes, City’s reward for a ruthless start against the Rams.

The Manager was thrilled with the nature of the performance, showing determination to recover from a disappointing run, take control of the game early on, before then digging in to stop a Derby fight back.

“I’m very happy for the players, all the credit to them,” he said at full-time. “I’m very happy for our fans, who were excellent during the whole game. That’s the kind of start we wanted, the kind of reaction we wanted.

“Definitely [it’s] the level of performance we like. The team was good in finding a good balance in attracting the pressure of a team that we knew could be aggressive, that could go into man-to-man situations.

“But we had the mobility, the desire to run in behind, the desire to break the lines, to go forward… so I’m very pleased. We were playing against a very good team in a good dynamic so it was a top performance in the first half.”

Leicester were particularly profitable on the counter-attack in Derby and Cifuentes says we must be adaptable to any situation in the Championship this term.

“That’s been something we’ve been talking about,” he added. “Our identity must be clear, we want to dominate games through possession, we want to play high on the pitch, and we need to be good in every situation.

“The Championship is a league which tests you in every kind of different scenario. Sometimes you need to be better on the counter because that’s where the space is, that’s where the chances can be.

“Sometimes you need to be more of a threat in behind. I think, in the second half, despite not being exactly what we wanted, we showed that we could compete in the low block.

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“We managed to have this commitment. It’s all that we ask from the players, to show this kind of desire, so that’s why I’m very pleased for the whole team for the performance.

“It's definitely been tough, for everyone, for the fans. I was with some of them at an event on Thursday and I know, of course, we’re disappointed.

“The most important thing is to stick together, understand where we are, this is not going to be easy, and now we need to really enjoy this win, but keep humble and keep doing what we’re doing.

“Hopefully we can repeat the same level of performance we had, especially in the first minutes, on Wednesday.

“The whole team, even the guys on the bench, were excellent, supporting the other guys. I’m pleased that, again, young players got minutes and helping, earning some experience that will be so important during the season.

“The whole team did excellent today, some good goals. Of course, during the game, we were thinking about Wednesday, so some of the subs were thinking about this as well, but it was an excellent performance for a lot of the players.”

Jakub Stolarczyk and Ben Nelson returned to the XI after injuries, while Ricardo Pereira’s workload continues to be managed, but all three helped us get over the line. With a few fitness concerns to navigate over recent weeks, it was a source of positivity for the Manager, who also had some fresh injury news to report.

“The performances of Jakub and Ben were top,” Cifuentes continued. “Ricardo, we know how good a player he is and how important he is for us.

“Obviously, we always want to manage him, but we would like him to play always because he’s our captain. I would say it’s been a difficult period in terms of injuries. Even this week as well, Jeremy [Monga] got a muscular injury. Bouba [Soumaré] as well, we need to do some more tests until we know more about his knee.

“At this moment of the season, that’s the last thing you want as a manager. The reality is the guys really responded to this, to adversity. Everyone is pushing together, then we can be a strong team.”

It’s Bristol City away next up for City, with Ipswich Town visiting Leicester at the weekend, so it’s a busy spell again, but Cifuentes wants the players to enjoy this win – before shifting full focus first to the Robins on Wednesday evening.

“We think always about starting some kind of trend,” he said. “We know the Championship is relentless.

“We know we’ll be traveling again away and it’s going to be a difficult game against Bristol, but that’s the reality of this league. Now we’ll enjoy a little bit but, from tomorrow, we’re going to push and prepare for this game.”

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