Leicester City

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The winger was booked in the 14th minute and played an hour for the Foxes before being withdrawn for Stephy Mavididi.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

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Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes believes his side "should have done better" after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties by Huddersfield at the first round stage.

The Foxes led twice at the Accu Stadium, only to be pulled back by their League One opponents, and the 43-year-old spoke of his frustration after the game.

"Disappointed in the performance, disappointed obviously in the final score and I think we should have done better, Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Unfortunately, I think the first half was poor and we should never have conceded the two goals like we did.

"My feeling in the first half was we were very slow - we spoke about it at half-time that against oppositions that perhaps are not that aggressive on the press we need to make sure that we move the ball quicker.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't move the ball quick and then we went too long.

"Every time we lost the ball we couldn't react quickly enough to regain the ball immediately and that created an up and down game."

Wrexham have registered interest in Manchester City defender Callum Doyle but face competition from Coventry City, Leicester City and Norwich City for the 21-year-old Englishman. (Football League World), external

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

"He always had that sense of humour about him, he will be sorely missed, you can't think of a stadium announcer at Leicester without thinking of him."

Former Leicester winger Matt Piper joins Owynn Palmer-Atkin and Kate Wattam to pay tribute to Bradley Varnam, who has died aged 56.

Foxes defender Luke Thomas also shared his thoughts after the 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.

Listen to the full episode of When You're Smiling and more on BBC Sounds.

Kate Blakemore
Fan writer

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Off the back of one of our most dismal seasons in years, the curtain-raiser against relegation favourites Sheffield Wednesday felt like a potential banana skin, and that kind of expectation weighs heavy on the shoulders of some. Being 1-0 down at half-time felt very ominous.

Leicester have become the pantomime villains of late on the football stage, and new boss, Marti Cifuentes, has some task on his hands to manage the on-field activities amid the deafening noise off it.

We showed glimpses of our potential after a poor first half, and it was really encouraging to see Cifuentes change it at half-time (rather than the orthodox 60 minutes of his predecessors) with the introduction of Harry Winks, who showed exactly why he was such a lynchpin in the Enzo Maresca era.

The midfield is a problem area with only Winks being a likely starter, following the departure of Wilfred Ndidi.

But with the cloud of PSR and a possible points deduction looming overhead, any spending must be shrewd. Cifuentes will likely have to look to the club's hot young talent, such as Jeremy Monga, Ben Nelson, Will Alvez and Louis Page.

It may be that these three points are on the board only temporarily, before the EFL takes them from us, but it was important to get off on the right foot.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but Cifuentes has a bit of a conundrum on his hands as to which building blocks to use - coupled with the affordability of the ones he wants to buy and the ones he doesn't need.

One thing is for sure, it's never dull in the Leicester City camp.

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Leicester City manager Marti Cifuentes said his side must be "more clinical" after their comeback win against crisis-hit Sheffield Wednesday.

The Foxes tallied 27 shots in total during their Championship campaign opener on Sunday, 13 of them on target, but required a late goal from substitute Wout Faes to down their 10-man visitors.

Faes's 87th-minute winner came via Bilal El Khannouss' delivery from one of Leicester's 13 corners, with the sought-after Moroccan playmaker also assisting centre-back Jannik Vestergaard from a free-kick for the equaliser earlier in the second half.

Admitting his new side were "slow" in their ball movement during a first half which saw them fall behind, Cifuentes said the second period showed more promising signs in terms of both player positioning and pace on the ball.

"From there we created many clear goal chances, and we need to get better at being more clinical on those ones," the Spanish coach added.

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But Cifuentes lauded Leicester's "mental capacity" to come from behind and the "fantastic impact" of his second-half introductions including Faes and Patson Daka, who also came close to finding the back of the net late on.

When asked about both goals being scored by defenders at set-pieces, he told BBC Radio Leicester: "I don't have any big preference on the way we score, as long as we score. It's important that we have different tools to create chances.

"The important thing is that we score, no matter if it's the centre halves or the strikers."

On his appreciation for Leicester's fans following his arrival last month, Cifuentes added: "Hopefully we can build something very strong together.

"We're going to try and work as hard as we can to give them good evenings, good afternoons, good results, good football, and hopefully they will appreciate that.

Leicester are next in action against League One side Huddersfield Town in the first round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, followed by a league trip to Preston North End on Saturday.

"The amount of new managers coming into the league this year, I have never seen anything like it".

Aaron Paul and Jobi McAnuff are joined by special guests Tommy Smith and Alex Bruce to preview the 2025-26 Championship season.

They discuss a range of topics including assessing chances of sides coming down from the Premier League, who the contenders might be for the top six and take a deep dive of each of the sides promoted from League One.

Listen to the full episode of 72+ and more on BBC Sounds.

The 2025-26 Championship opening weekend concludes with an intriguing encounter between Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday afternoon (16:30 BST).

The visiting Owls have been in the midst of a financial crisis, with key players departing and threatening strike action, leaving the English Football League to wonder if Sunday's game will happen at all.

It hasn't quite been so bad for Leicester but their pre-season hasn't been all plain sailing either, with a lot of confusion surrounding the managerial position finally being answered by the appointment of former Queens Park Rangers boss Marti Cifuentes.

• Leicester City are unbeaten across their last three league games against Sheffield Wednesday (W2 D1), last enjoying a longer undefeated run against the Owls between August 1967 and October 1981 (six games).

• Sheffield Wednesday have lost three of their last four away league games against Leicester City (W1), conceding 2+ goals in each defeat.

• Leicester are unbeaten across their last six opening games of a league campaign (W3 D3), since a 2-1 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford to start the 2018-19 season.

• This is the fourth time in the 21st century that Sheffield Wednesday are starting a Championship season against a side relegated from the Premier League the previous campaign – they lost 2-1 against both QPR (2013-14) and Southampton (2023-24) but beat Aston Villa 1-0 (2016-17).

• This will be the 69th time that Leicester will start a league campaign with a home match, with only Everton having more opening matches on home soil across England's top four tiers (72).

Leicester and Nigeria midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, 28, is set to undergo a medical at Besiktas ahead of an £8.5m move to the Turkish Super Lig. (Sky Sports, external)

Norwich are hoping to beat Leicester and Sheffield United to the signing of England under-21 defender Callum Doyle, 21, who is valued around £10m by Man City. (SportsBoom, external)

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

Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi is set to join Turkish Süper Lig side Besiktas for £9m. (OneFootball), external

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