Marti Cifuentes and Leicester City let a two-goal lead slip as they drew with Gerhard Struber’s Bristol City at Ashton GateLeicester City boss Marti Cifuentes watches on during Bristol City’s draw with the Foxes(Image: Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Leicester City were keen to score a third goal to “close the game” early in the second half of their draw with Bristol City, according to Marti Cifuentes, with the Foxes boss explaining that he and his players discussed “really pushing” the Robins at half-time, at Ashton Gate.

Second-half goals from Mark Sykes and Emil Riis were enough to see the Reds come from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Cifuentes’ side under the BS3 lights on Wednesday evening. After a poor first-half showing, City were able to rally to secure a valuable point.

The Foxes took the lead after 17 minutes when Jordan Ayew chipped past Radek Vitek from the penalty spot. Just as it looked as though that would be the only difference between the two sides at the break, Bobby De Cordova-Reid finished an impressive attacking move to double the away side’s advantage moments before the interval.

OPINION

OPINION

Having spent much of the opening 45 minutes on top and with a comfortable lead already secured before the restart, Cifuentes was keen for his players to go in for the kill early in the second half. To the Leicester boss’ frustration, things didn’t quite how he had planned.

“We spoke about going for the third one because we knew that scoring a third one could probably close the game,” Cifuentes explained in his post-match press conference. “Nobody could be surprised about Bristol trying to push in the first 15 minutes.

“We spoke about the importance of really, really, really pushing this [at] the beginning of the second-half, and unfortunately, then we concede [from] a situation which actually we spoke about how to handle at half-time [and] we concede after one minute.

“After that, we saw a yellow card, and that kind of creates a momentum for them. After that, we miss a little bit of calmness, the kind of understanding [of] how to control the game better because we know the Championship. We know it’s going to be difficult to have full control for 95 minutes, but the second half was very different to the first half, where I think we did really, really well.”

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Sykes’ second of the season came less than a minute into the second half, and from that point on, it was Gerhard Struber’s side who were in the ascendancy. Riis, Anis Mehmeti, Rob Dickie, and Sinclair Armstrong all came close to a leveller as pressure and the atmosphere began to build inside Ashton Gate.

Then, as it began to feel as though time was running out for the Robins to secure a point, Riis headed home his sixth goal in red and white, steering Ross McCrorie’s cross from the left flank beyond Jakub Stolarczyk to kickstart the celebrations amongst the home supporters.

Meeting first-half standards after the break has been an issue for Leicester so far this term, and while Cifuentes was delighted with the control his side had for large parts of the first period against City, he felt Sykes’ strike early in the second period turned the dynamic of the game on its head.

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“If you look at the last two performances, it is difficult to say that it is, right?” the Leicester boss replied when asked if his half-time message was getting through to his players. “But management is not like PlayStation; it’s not like it’s easy like that.

“I think that we are trying to change some things, and sometimes emotions can take a bit out of it. You can see the team played really well with confidence in the first half; I think we understood that Bristol is a really good team in terms of pressing.

“They got a lot man-to-man, and we adjust things to invite them to jump and then exploit the same space in behind. I think we did really, really well in the first half; rotations in the midfield helped us to get a little bit more control when it was needed. Bristol are a good team, but first half, I thought we were really in control, and we did so well.

“Second half, the moment that we concede, the game changed. We need to work on why it takes just this to change the whole development of the game.”

READ MORE: Gerhard Struber details half-time Bristol City message in Zak Vyner update after Leicester drawREAD MORE: Spirited second-half showing sees Bristol City come from behind to secure Leicester City draw