Leicestershire

Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes praised record-breaking teenager Jeremy Monga after the Foxes 2-1 defeat to Preston.

"He deserves the credit, he is a talented boy and we are trying to take care of him because he is very humble and that is very important for me because the way he works on the pitch is excellent," he told BBC Radio Leicester.

"He wants to learn, he is eager to improve and he has a lot of talent so I'm happy that he scored his first goal and I'm sure he's going to stay humble as well and I'm not happy only about the goal but the whole performance.

"He is showing character and personality and we're going to try to help him to be the player we think he can be."

Regarding the game, Cifuentes was disappointed in his team's performance as they tasted defeat for the first time in the Championship this season.

"It's not a good performance and it's not a good result and obviously we are disappointed. I know what we can expect with Preston, they are very clear in terms of identity, and the two goals that we conceded were poor," he said.

"Our positioning especially in the first half was not as good as it could have been we didn't cope with the long balls and in behind, we could have done better.

"We improved in the second half got the goal to change the momentum and when we got the draw we got some chances but conceded a goal that we should have coped better with. The tracking back could have been better but it's a good goal from them good quality on the cross and a good finish."

Leicester's 21-year-old Morocco international midfielder Bilal El Khannouss could yet make a £30m move to Leeds. (Leeds Live, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Friday's gossip column here.

Leicester City visit Preston North End on Saturday (15:00 BST) as they aim to recover from their Carabao Cup loss to Huddersfield Town on penalties in midweek.

The Foxes did manage to scrape a win over struggling Sheffield Wednesday in the their opening Championship match though, while Preston earned a point at QPR before squeezing past League Two side Barrow via an own goal in the cup.

• Preston North End have failed to win any of their last five league games against Leicester City (D1 L4), since a 2-1 win in September 2009 courtesy of goals from Richard Chaplow and Neil Mellor.

• Leicester City are unbeaten across their last seven away league games against Preston North End (W3 D4), winning 3-0 on their last visit to Deepdale in April 2024.

• Preston have won their opening home game in just one of the last five league campaigns (D1 L3), with that win coming against Sunderland in 2023-24 (2-1).

• Leicester have won four of their last five league games at this level (L1), netting 2+ goals in each victory including a 3-0 success at Deepdale in April 2024.

• On MD1 of the 2025-26 Championship season, Leicester City's Bilal El Khannouss provided more assists than any other player (2), both of which came from dead balls, while no player created more chances than his four.

Image source, Getty Images

Jeremy Monga became Leicester City's youngest ever starter in Wednesday's Carabao Cup penalty shootout defeat by Huddersfield at the age of 16 years and 34 days old.

He beat a record which had been held for 59 years by legendary former Foxes and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who made his debut in a 3-0 victory against Everton in May 1966 at Filbert Street at the age of 16 years and 228 days.

Monga was a second-half substitute for Leicester in their opening day Championship win against Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday and made seven substitute appearances in the Premier League last season.

However, the EFL Cup tie signalled his first start for the club.

The winger was booked in the 14th minute and played an hour for the Foxes before being withdrawn for Stephy Mavididi.

And, after the match, boss Marti Cifuentes spoke glowingly of Monga and 16-year-old team-mate Louis Page, who also made his first-team debut as a half-time substitute.

"'I'm a big believer in Jez, I'm a big believer in Louis, they are here because they are showing their quality," Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Now, my job is to make sure they are not just here to make their debut but to make sure they succeed in the long term.

"[Wednesday] was a scenario that was not easy because there was a little bit of pressure around him [Monga] around the yellow card and I think that he coped really well with that with his personality.

"We tried to protect him a little bit, that's why we subbed him. In my eyes, he was doing a good job but we want him ready for this Saturday."