Cifuentes: A Moment To Enjoy

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Cifuentes: A Moment To Enjoy

Martí Cifuentes wants his players and the fans to enjoy celebrating Friday’s 2-0 win over Birmingham City before the work begins again during the international break.

2025-08-30T09:00+01:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

30 Aug, 2025

from King Power Stadium

Cifuentes: A Moment To Enjoy

Martí Cifuentes wants his players and the fans to enjoy celebrating Friday’s 2-0 win over Birmingham City before the work begins again during the international break.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-30T09:00+01:00

Cifuentes: A Moment To Enjoy

Martí Cifuentes wants his players and the fans to enjoy celebrating Friday’s 2-0 win over Birmingham City before the work begins again during the international break.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-30T09:00+01:00

Cifuentes: A Moment To Enjoy

Martí Cifuentes wants his players and the fans to enjoy celebrating Friday’s 2-0 win over Birmingham City before the work begins again during the international break.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-30T09:00+01:00

Cifuentes: A Moment To Enjoy

Martí Cifuentes wants his players and the fans to enjoy celebrating Friday’s 2-0 win over Birmingham City before the work begins again during the international break.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-30T09:00+01:00

Leicester City were 2-0 winners over Birmingham City at King Power Stadium on Friday
Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira got the goals for the Foxes in the Sky Bet Championship
Manager Martí Cifuentes was happy for his players to be rewarded for their hard work
There's improvements needed, he says, but insists their 'hard work is very important'

Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira found the net in an impressive success over Blues, who have started the new Sky Bet Championship campaign well.

Although there are games to played across the weekend, this win elevated us up to third in the table on Friday evening – a reward for the team’s work so far under Cifuentes.

The new Manager admits there is still plenty of room for improvement in the performances, but the determination and team spirit on display continues to please him.

“It matters, of course [to play attractive football],” he said at full-time. “We want to make sure that we play better. My target is to make sure that the team shows an improvement game by game, but the reality as well is that the foundation of everything was to make sure the team had this commitment, this spirit, this hard work that is very important to connect.

“Today I saw details about the blocks in the last minutes, the high press... even if we're leading, we try to score the second goal, that shows there is something to build on with those guys. It’s very important because we’re playing at home and it was important to get the feeling that we can build a good dynamic, especially because it’s always special in front of our fans.

“It's always difficult in the Championship because you face a lot of teams – because of the way we want to play in the build-up – they are going to go so physical. Every time we can break, it’s sometimes a free-kick or something, so that breaks a little bit the momentum.

“In general, I think we need to be better with the way we build up, in the way we break lines and the way we understand it’s time to accelerate or not, but when the attitude of the players is good, there are many good players in this team, so then it’s easier to get the results.”

Cifuentes was pleased with the contributions from the bench on Friday, with three substitutes – Jeremy Monga, Patson Daka and Ricardo all linking up for the second goal. He was also eager to highlight the impact of youngsters Louis Page and Monga – each making their full home league debuts and laying on the assists for the goals, alongside the other Academy prospects in the squad.

“I’m very happy because the assist for the first goal was from Louis showing his personality,” the Manager added. “Abdul, it’s good news for all of us that he is showing he’s fit, that he wants more and more every game, and both of them will be very important for us.

“Then, for the second goal, we’re very happy as well because the bench impact was amazing. Not only Jez [Monga] because of the assist and Ricardo because of the goal, but I think that Pato (Daka) … I think everybody gave something to the team.

“It’s always a pleasure to see the unity and commitment of all the bench celebrating the second goal. That’s something that creates this momentum that we want to build.

“The message [to youngsters] is clear. If they show they want to be here, that they are really committed, they show quality and talent, the possibilities are here.

“It’s up to them now to be ready for the opportunities and we’re going to help them to make sure that we build them. I’m very happy for both of them, for Silko [Thomas] in the last game as well. He got some minutes. For Bade [Aluko] that’s he training so well.

“For Jake [Evans] and many of them. Hopefully there is a solid foundation and it’s a pleasure when you see even more experienced players coming from the Academy like Hamza [Choudhury] and others, Ben [Nelson] as well. They will be very important this season.

“It's a moment to enjoy. The fans, the players themselves, we need to enjoy it because it’s never easy to win football games. We need to be happy, we need to celebrate, and then of course we’ll get back to the job to keep improving because there’s a lot of things we need to improve. It’s a long season and this is just the beginning.”

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