Leicester City host Brighton and Hove Albion in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup on Wednesday night, looking to reach consecutive Quarter Finals for the first time since the 1967-68 and 1968-69 seasons.
Brighton are looking to reach the Quarter Finals for the third time in four years having reached the last-eight in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 season.
Both teams come into this game on the back of draws in the Premier League over the weekend. Brighton drew 1-1 away at Burnley whilst the Foxes drew 0-0 away to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
With both teams competing at different ends of the Premier League table, this makes for an exciting end to end fixture.
The Foxes have faced two Championship sides on the way to the Fifth Round, beating Stoke City 4-0 and Brentford 3-1 both away from home.
The Seagulls on the other hand beat League Two side Newport County on penalties and League One side Blackpool 2-1 on their way to the Fifth Round.
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Team News
Brendan Rodgers will be without a number of first team players for the visit of Brighton. Wes Morgan (back), Dennis Praet (thigh), Wesley Fofana (thigh) and Timothy Castagne (hamstring) will all miss out.
Jamie Vardy who made his Premier League comeback coming off the bench against Wolves following surgery on a groin injury is expected to feature at some stage against Brighton as he builds himself back up to full fitness. Wilfred Ndidi is fit having recovered from a minor hamstring tear.
Rodgers has confirmed that a number of youth players will feature at some point in the game. This was confirmed as a number of development players missed Monday's 2-1 defeat against Derby County in the Premier League 2.
Brighton will be without defender Adam Webster who rolled his ankle in the draw against Burnley.
Solly March is the only other long-term absentee, being ruled out for 12 weeks after having surgery on a knee injury suffered in the 1-0 win against Liverpool.
Predicted Line-Ups
Leicester City: Ward; Daley-Campbell, Amartey, Soyuncu, Thomas; Mendy, Tielemans, Maddison; Barnes, Vardy, Under.
Brighton & Hove Albion: Walton; White, Dunk, Burn; Veltman, Alzate, Bissouma, Karbownik; Lallana, Trossard; Welbeck.
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Last Meeting
The two teams last met in the Premier League in December in an exciting exchange at the King Power Stadium.
In a first half which had everything, the Foxes took the lead after 27 minutes when a ball in from James Justin was met by Vardy, who then played the ball back to James Maddison who fired home into the bottom corner.
Leicester got their second after 41 minutes, when Justin, who caused the Brighton problems all night on the right-hand side, put another ball into the box which was met again by Vardy who was left unmarked as he fired home to reach double figures for the season.
In a man of the match performance, James Maddison got his second three minutes later, when he curled a lovely shot from just inside the box into the top corner past goalkeeper Matt Ryan.
Apart from a good save from Kasper Schmeichel in the opening couple of minutes when Danny Welbeck went through on goal, the visitors never really troubled the Leicester goal, and the home side were fully deserving of the three points which took them to third in the table.
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Ones to Watch
The on-loan Roma winger has struggled for game time in the Premier League this season, having featured more in the domestic and European cup competitions. He is expected to start on Wednesday however.
Having gotten some important goals and assists in his first season in English football, including the assist to Vardy in the 1-0 win against Arsenal back in October, the Turkish international could be key to Leicester’s attack on Wednesday.
Leandro Trossard
A similar player to Under, Trossard is a pacey and skilful winger who can cause teams a number of problems.
Having gotten two goals and four assists in the Premier League so far this season, the Belgium international, who has struggled with injuries since arriving on the South coast back in 2019, will most probably be Brighton’s star man against Leicester.
If he can remain fit for the remainder of the season, Trossard will play a key role if Graham Potter’s side are to avoid a relegation battle.
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Pre-Match Thoughts
In the build-up to the match Brendan Rodgers spoke about the possibility of using some of the club’s younger players against Brighton.
He said: "We’ve had a group of young players that have been training with us and, like I’ve always tried to do, if I think it’s the right moment, we’ll give them an opportunity.
"With young players, you’ll never know until you put them in. It’s something we’ve done all season, but we want to get into the quarter-finals. After this press conference, we’ll confirm everything in terms of the strategy for the game, the squad, the team, everything else, and then you’ll see on Wednesday."
Graham Potter spoke of how he doesn’t want to see his side to relax following a run of results which has seen them go five games unbeaten in the topflight, seeing them climb up the table.
He said: “I don't sense any breathing space; in this league you have got to keep going all the time. You can't worry about what the other teams are doing.”
“You have got to look at yourself and what you can do to improve the team, look at the next game and keep it quite simple.”
“You know that every game in this league is so difficult and you have to approach it in that way, to try and get a positive result in every match.”
The game is available to watch on BT Sport 2 from 19:00pm with kick off taking place at 19:30pm.
Alternatively you can keep up to date with live text updates on the VAVEL website or the Leicester VAVEL Twitter page.