City Sign Off Pre-Season With Fiorentina Success

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City Sign Off Pre-Season With Fiorentina Success

We concluded our 25/26 preparations on Sunday with an impressive 2-0 victory over Serie A outfit ACF Fiorentina at King Power Stadium.

2025-08-03T16:55+01:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

03 Aug, 2025

from King Power Stadium

City Sign Off Pre-Season With Fiorentina Success

We concluded our 25/26 preparations on Sunday with an impressive 2-0 victory over Serie A outfit ACF Fiorentina at King Power Stadium.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-03T16:55+01:00

City Sign Off Pre-Season With Fiorentina Success

We concluded our 25/26 preparations on Sunday with an impressive 2-0 victory over Serie A outfit ACF Fiorentina at King Power Stadium.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-03T16:55+01:00

City Sign Off Pre-Season With Fiorentina Success

We concluded our 25/26 preparations on Sunday with an impressive 2-0 victory over Serie A outfit ACF Fiorentina at King Power Stadium.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-03T16:55+01:00

City Sign Off Pre-Season With Fiorentina Success

We concluded our 25/26 preparations on Sunday with an impressive 2-0 victory over Serie A outfit ACF Fiorentina at King Power Stadium.

Sam Stevens

2025-08-03T16:55+01:00

Jordan Ayew and Abdul Fatawu found the net during the first half on Filbert Way, giving Martí Cifuentes a winning start to life in LE2 against the two-time Italian champions.

Backed by 13,210 fans for this final friendly of the summer, many donning our new adidas home shirt, this was a positive conclusion to a productive pre-season, with all focus now on Sky Bet Championship duties.

Martí’s methods coming through

The new Manager has been clear with his players – and the fans – about his desire to see the Foxes play front-footed, dominant football under his guidance.

He described it as a ‘non-negotiable’ when he first joined us last month. From the off in LE2, his new side were pressing high, with Bilal El Khannouss in particular not letting the visiting defence rest on the ball.

Stephy Mavididi as well, alongside the impressive Fatawu, was a danger down the left wing, often finding himself bursting past his man and getting City’s sights locked on goal. The new Manager could be spotted applauding his players on the sidelines, especially before the break, a sure-fire sign he was happy with what he was seeing.

Threats on the flanks

Fatawu, making his first Foxes start since last November, has steadily been building back towards full fitness over the summer months.

After a few cameos from the bench, this performance was an exciting reminder of the Ghanaian’s talents too. Alessandro Bianco certainly wasn’t having a lot of fun keeping tabs on him down the wing.

It was the industry of City’s No.7 which unlocked the I Viola defence for our two first-half goals. Firstly, he darted down the channel, fed El Khannouss who, in turn, located Ayew to finish well. Then, for the second, it was all Abdul, fizzing free of Bianco again before smashing it beyond Tommaso Martinelli to make it 2-0 to Leicester.

Eyes on our season-opener

A pre-season defined by the hard yards of early June, the bonding and tactical work in Austria, and the fine-tuning of recent weeks is nearly at its close.

It will have been especially enthusing for Cifuentes to see many of the aspects he’s honed in on show visible signs of progress during this Filbert Way run-out. The same surely applies to the Blue Army.

If not for some sterling goalkeeping from Martinelli – denying Kasey McAteer and then El Khannouss in quick succession – or McAteer's late miss after good work by substitute Harry Winks, the scoreline could have been swelled even further. The time for action is nearly upon us, when Sheffield Wednesday are our visitors next Sunday as the curtain is raised on this 25/26 Championship campaign.

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