Match Preview: Leicester City vs Birmingham City

Leicester City vs Birmingham City

Live Wednesday at 2:45 PM ET on ESPN+

The FA Cup 5th round comes just in time for the Foxes to try and get their season back on track. It’s Leicester’s only chance at a trophy this season and I believe Brendan Rodgers will put out a strong side in order to advance, especially at home.

Birmingham City

Birmingham just squeaked by in their 4th round replay at home against Coventry City. Their first match ended 0-0, and given Coventry have been playing their home matches at Birmingham City’s stadium, they didn’t have to go very far for the replay.

The second match was much more exciting with Birmingham equalizing in 90+2 after going down in the 50th minute to an own goal. In overtime they the doubled their last minute goal tally, evening things up at 2-2. Birmingham City dominated penalties 4-1 and earned their spot in the 5th round.

Leicester City

The Foxes took only 4 minutes to get going in their 4th round match against Brentford with a goal coming from Kelechi Iheanacho. I imagine the Nigerian will get another go in the 5th round given the potentially still injured Jamie Vardy will get some extra time to rest before Monday.

Their performance against Brentford was very similar to the majority of their performances in 2020. They controlled possession with 53%, but only managed 3 shots on target from 13 taken. Look for Danny Ward to get another cap between the posts as our cup keeper.

Prediction

Much like you might have seen in the other FA Cup matches, this is a great chance for teams that struggled over the weekend in the league to come out and get a statement win. It would be nice if everything could click and we’d get a little slice of what we saw at the beginning of the season. I think given Birmingham City’s resilience in the last round, we should be careful of a 1-0 scoreline coming late in the game, but that said, I think we win it 2-0 and head to our match with Villa with a bit of confidence.