Millwall 2-3 Leicester City: Clinical Foxes reach FA Cup fourth round

Leicester City showed their clinical side to pip Millwall in an entertaining all-Championship tie at the Den to reach round four of the FA Cup.

The Foxes went ahead with their first attack as Marc Albrighton hung up a cross from the right for Cesare Casadei to power in a header, and the Italian then sent Ricardo Pereira clean through to guide a shot past Matija Sarkic.

Duncan Watmore turned in from close range after the break to halve the deficit but Tom Cannon made it 3-1, pipping the advancing Sarkic to Callum Doyle's long ball to round the keeper and finish into an empty net.

Zian Flemming set up a tense finale when he stroked home Joe Bryan's outswinging corner, but the 2021 cup winners and Championship leaders held on to go through.

• Follow Saturday's FA Cup action

It is the third season running Millwall have fallen in round three, but they caused plenty of problems, matching Leicester's eight attempts on target, and almost forced a replay deep in stoppage time when Flemming's low free-kick from the corner of the box zipped narrowly past the far post.

Yet Leicester, who made seven changes, had just enough to extend their unbeaten run to 11 matches and claim a 24th win from 30 matches in all competitions this season.

Stand-in Foxes keeper Jakub Stolarczyk showed his value in just his fifth appearance of the season with good stops from Watmore and Danny McNamara, as Millwall started brightly, before City pinched a lead through on-loan Chelsea midfielder Casadei's third goal of the season.

The Lions, showing six changes of their own, continued to carve out chances, Jake Cooper sending a free header over the bar from Bryan's corner before Pereira made it two shots on target and two goals for the visitors.

A breathless, helter-skelter second half saw Sarkic make a super diving save from Cannon to keep the Lions in the tie, before Watmore capitalised with a richly deserved goal.

Hope turned to despair just six minutes later when Sarkic made a hash of judging Doyle's route-one ball and Cannon's third goal in two games seemed to have wrapped things up.

Sarkic then twice denied in-form 21-year-old Cannon, and then Albrighton, before Flemming's neat finish ensured a nervy finish and a repeat of the 3-2 scoreline from last month's league meeting.

Millwall boss Joe Edwards:

"We've spoken a lot since I've been here that we want to have more of the ball, but the big thing is about what we're doing when we've got it, and I thought the standout positive for us was we played out a lot.

"The outcome of it was we were playing through Leicester into the final third a lot.

"We've had other games where we've started to look like a team that's got a clear idea in possession but not really created much, so to have that many shots is a positive.

"The flip side of that is that we made a couple of minor errors around our own box."

Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca:

"We had a very young first XI - we had seven of our 11 players born after 2000 - so it was a tricky game, but overall we created many chances, we scored three goals and we could have scored more.

"Probably in the first half we conceded too much because we were pressing not in the perfect way.

"The second half was much better off the ball and also on the ball, we improved a lot."