Cifuentes: Mixed Feelings

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Cifuentes: Mixed Feelings

Martí Cifuentes praised the fighting spirit to rescue a point at West Bromwich Albion, but admitted he wanted more from the Hawthorns clash on Friday night.

2025-09-27T09:00+01:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

27 Sep, 2025

Cifuentes: Mixed Feelings

Martí Cifuentes praised the fighting spirit to rescue a point at West Bromwich Albion, but admitted he wanted more from the Hawthorns clash on Friday night.

Sam Stevens

2025-09-27T09:00+01:00

Cifuentes: Mixed Feelings

Martí Cifuentes praised the fighting spirit to rescue a point at West Bromwich Albion, but admitted he wanted more from the Hawthorns clash on Friday night.

Sam Stevens

2025-09-27T09:00+01:00

Cifuentes: Mixed Feelings

Martí Cifuentes praised the fighting spirit to rescue a point at West Bromwich Albion, but admitted he wanted more from the Hawthorns clash on Friday night.

Sam Stevens

2025-09-27T09:00+01:00

Cifuentes: Mixed Feelings

Martí Cifuentes praised the fighting spirit to rescue a point at West Bromwich Albion, but admitted he wanted more from the Hawthorns clash on Friday night.

Sam Stevens

2025-09-27T09:00+01:00

We drew 1-1 with West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns on Friday
A Nat Phillips own goal in added time helped us take a point from the Black Country
Samuel Iling-Junior had opened the scoring for the Baggies early on
Manager Martí Cifuentes is confident we can turn draws into victories

Although Leicester City were on top for large spells of the first half in the Black Country, debutant Samuel Iling-Junior had the Baggies in front at half-time.

Ryan Mason’s hosts carved out more opportunities after the restart and perhaps could have extended their lead, but the Foxes dug deep and levelled in added time through a Nat Phillips own goal.

After a game which City wanted three points from, could have left with none, and settled for one, Cifuentes admitted to both satisfaction and frustration at full-time.

“It’s mixed feelings,” the Manager said. “From one side, we started the game really well. I would say the first half was quite strong but, unfortunately, we conceded a goal in a high-press situation that we didn’t deal well enough and then we were the chasing the whole game.

“Despite this dominance in the first half, we should have created a little bit more. In the second half, we tried to make some adjustments.

“For some moments, we were starting to get there, but perhaps the more the game went, it was more emotional, definitely in the last minutes when we were chasing a result.

“At the end, I really value the effort of the guys, I really value the bench impact, the fact that we got something from a difficult scenario and we showed the guys are fighting really hard to get the results.

“When I arrived here, I learned pretty quick with some former players about the identity of the Club, that ‘Foxes Never Quit’, and I think that should always be there. The team is definitely showing this ambition.”

That first-half performance – when Jordan Ayew, Jordan James, Harry Winks and Ricardo Pereira all went close – is one of the positives Cifuentes can take from the contest. With this being a third successive draw, though, he’s confident the fluidity will come.

“I’m especially satisfied for many minutes of the first half,” he added. “I think we played really well. It was not easy in the first minutes because every time we beat the block, the high-press, it was constant interruptions, contestant free-kicks, so slowed down our tempo.

“That was a bit frustrating but at the same time, I think we can just get better. I see that the players are trying during the week in training.

“Now it’s about getting those relationships on, getting this understanding of each other’s positioning and roles, and then I’m sure that we’re going to have more fluidity in the last third.”

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