We've Been Punished, Says Cifuentes

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We've Been Punished, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes believes Leicester City did not ‘show our best’ during the 2-1 home defeat to Watford.

2025-12-27T09:00+00:00

by Sam Jones

Published

27 Dec, 2025

We've Been Punished, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes believes Leicester City did not ‘show our best’ during the 2-1 home defeat to Watford.

Sam Jones

2025-12-27T09:00+00:00

We've Been Punished, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes believes Leicester City did not ‘show our best’ during the 2-1 home defeat to Watford.

Sam Jones

2025-12-27T09:00+00:00

We've Been Punished, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes believes Leicester City did not ‘show our best’ during the 2-1 home defeat to Watford.

Sam Jones

2025-12-27T09:00+00:00

We've Been Punished, Says Cifuentes

Martí Cifuentes believes Leicester City did not ‘show our best’ during the 2-1 home defeat to Watford.

Sam Jones

2025-12-27T09:00+00:00

Martí Cifuentes’ speaks following our 2-1 defeat to Watford at King Power Stadium
Jordan James’ early goal wasn’t enough to take anything from the Boxing Day encounter
The Manager gave his verdict on a second successive defeat in the Sky Bet Championship
We host Derby County next on Monday (7:45pm GMT kick-off)

The Foxes started on the front foot and led through Jordan James’ sixth league goal of the season but eventually fell to a second successive reverse in the Sky Bet Championship to remain 13th in the standings.

Sharing his immediate reflections at King Power Stadium, City’s Manager felt the timing of Othmane Maamma’s equaliser, coming just before half-time, was unfortunate, but admitted that his side must react better to those frustrations during the game.

Cifuentes commented post-match: “I’m quite angry because we wanted a reaction after the last game and I think we started the game well, showing that intention about reacting and starting strongly. In the first half, we created some chances, but we had to capitalise even more in a good moment.

“The first half was quite good, in terms of putting pressure on, moving the ball side to side, creating some chances. Still, I want to see more high up the pitch when we are close to the box and create even more clear chances.

“And then conceding in that stage of the first half, just 30 seconds before the end of it, in the way it was, it felt a little bit of a hit emotionally as well. We spoke with the guys at half-time about not feeling sorry for ourselves, to keep pushing.

“We cannot just think that we can win only the games where everything goes our way, because many days you need to chase a comeback and accept that it is going to be a mistake and you need to compete. In that sense, accountability is key and to make sure that after the game we can discuss. During the game, we need to show our best and today we didn’t.”

Mattie Pollock found the winner for Watford on 65 minutes, turning the game on its head and ensuring that it was Javi Gracia’s visitors who left Filbert Way with all three points, with City unable to find an equaliser. Putting this disappointment to one side, attention now turns to facing Derby County on Monday.

“We knew Watford were having a lot of players behind the ball, so we had to move the ball quickly,” the 43-year-old continued. “They will try and take something from a counter or set play, and the second goal, it’s a chain of mistakes.

“But everything starts with a cheap free-kick that we should defend better and then a corner kick that we should deal better with. After that, we didn’t create enough chances and put enough pressure on the box and that’s the frustrating part.

“We need to understand that sometimes the games will not go our way, but we always need to be strong enough in every kind of scenario. It’s these kinds of emotional moments that we need to cope with. That’s the difficult bit.

“The players want to push but this season we have been punished for individual mistakes and we need to cope better.

“The fact that we didn’t start well in the second half and they took the lead, it’s never pleasing. There is more quality in the players. I’m sure that they know that. We need to show it and understand better the moments of the game.”

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