Bristol City fight back from two down to draw with Leicester, and a frustrated Marti Cifuentes reveals his half time team talk.
Leicester were one up through Jordan Ayew’s penalty on 17 minutes, then Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s first-time finish doubled their lead just before the break.
But Mark Sykes pulled one back a minute into the second half, and after Sinclair Armstrong struck the woodwork, Emil Riis headed the 83rd-minute equaliser from Ross McCrorie’s cross to earn the Robins a dramatic point.
Foxes boss Marti Cifuentes was disappointed that what he said at half time didn’t get through to his players as they bottled their lead.
Useless twat!!!! Game management and subs 2nd half should be enough for him to be sacked now. Look at Southampton since they sacked their clown. This won’t change until he’s gone. Seriously what a fuckin joke pic.twitter.com/nMTokzGYKD
— LC LCF LCFC OK 🦊 (@LCFC_1884_OK) December 10, 2025
Leicester City manager Marti Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester:
“We come to every game with the intention to get the three points, so it’s always disappointing not to get those, especially after a very good first half.
“I think we did so well, we understood really well that Bristol City are a team that likes to press really high, that likes man-to-man situations and we understood where the space was and how to exploit it.
“Then obviously when you are 2-0 up we spoke at half-time about the need to score the third one and to not drop, and to understand that they would push from the very beginning.
“Then it’s very disappointing to concede a goal in less than one minute. So probably the impact of this goal was too much. We needed to control the second half and the scenario better because we were still in the lead, but it’s obviously disappointing to get only one point from this.”
He added, per Leicester Mercury: “After the goal, it creates a momentum for them and after that, we missed the calmness, the understanding of how to control the game.
“We know in the Championship that it’s going to be difficult to control the game for 95 minutes but the second half was very different than the first half, in which we did very well.
“If you look at the last two performances, it’s difficult to say that it is (the message of pushing for more goals is pushing through). But management is not like PlayStation. It’s not easy like that.
“We are trying to change some things and sometimes emotions can be a big part of it. In the moment we concede the game changes. We need to work on why it takes just this to change the whole development of the game.
“We need to be on the front foot. When we are able to press high, when we have the ball longer and we are aggressive to attack in behind, that’s the kind of football we want to play and that’s when we’re at our best.”
On if it was a mentality issue, Cifuentes said: “It’s easy to say. I understand that conceding after 50 seconds, things can change quickly, but I think we have enough experience in the changing room to understand we can do much better and I’m sure the team will do much better in the future.”
Bristol City head coach Gerhard Struber told BBC Radio Bristol: “It was like two different Bristol City teams out there tonight. In the first half it was not the branding of the team we want to show and in the second it was completely that branding.
“I was very clear with my message at half-time and the response from the players was great. But if we are to go up the table we have to show greater consistency of performance.
“Zak Vyner was feeling a small injury, which contributed to why he was taken off. We will have that checked and hopefully it is nothing too bad.
“Sinclair Armstrong gave another strong performance as a substitute, but when he headed against the bar I think the ball was already going in, so that was unfortunate.
“In the end, we could easily have won and proved that at our best we can cause many problems for teams as good as Leicester. We need to learn lessons from both halves.”
Twitter users gave their reaction as Bristol City fight back from two down to draw with Leicester and Cifuentes reveals his half time team talk…
@Barbs241: Sack him tonight, pathetic manager. Another Top disasterclass
@LestahGeorge: Was so predictable when JJ went off, Marti awful subs again
@kelsen_sachin: 2 points dropped. Another game where we show glimpses of quality in the first and never show it again in the second. So, so frustrating and inconsistent. Players and manager need to sort it the fuck out quickly. Absolutely fucking dire
@mr_nat1: The fuck does Marti say at halftime? Winning 2-0 and he decides to park the bus and still concede 2. He’s absolutely clueless.
@XtraLeicester:
We can’t win a midweek game
We can’t hold out a lead
Defenders can’t pick up a man at a cross
Goalkeeper is very suspect
Manager makes very questionable subs
Captain who only plays once a week
And an owner who’s miles away
#lcfc
@SA_1884: Get Marti in charge of San Marino. He’d fit in there. Sack 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
@lee1978lcfc: Lucky to get away with a draw in the end… Cruising at half time but don’t turn up in the second half AGAIN… 2 points dropped. #lcfc 💙🦊
@kelsen_sachin: The way we consistently find ourselves playing like a half decent football team only for us to become so tactically inept and lose all ability is fucking baffling and pathetic. We’ve got an incompetent manager and mentality midget players. Beyond embarrassing. #LCFC
@ccfc_07: 2 nil up and you fucked it up 🎶🎶
@JackWhitman_7: Absolutely awful, just like the 2nd half v Derby.
@Wadey410: Felt optimistic after Saturday and from the first half today! But rinse and repeat definitely 2 points dropped tonight through a lacklustre 2nd half #lcfc
@nickjonnyb: Where are those that were coming for that lad the other day for criticising our 2nd half against Derby? He was bang on the money. That win was a paper over the cracks, even at 3 up in the first half we didn’t look good, Derby were just somehow worse than us. Sack Marti now
@JimWills94: That second half was fucking pathetic, just like the Derby game. Fuck off Marti
@CamPepperr: JJ off for Daka is just laughable
@c_r_5: Boooo booooo BOOOOOOO. An absolute disgrace of a half. WTF was that substitute? Where was the game management? Absolutely pathetic. Unprofessional. Make the manager & players walk home
TONIGHT. The Patson Daka sub has absolutely killed us. Jakub is not fit to be number 1. Entirely on Cifuentes this. Clueless manager. pic.twitter.com/hhDGx6mnyT
— FOX50 (@RFox55_) December 10, 2025
Leicester City this season #LCFC pic.twitter.com/DSCAxjmjku
— Elm🦊 (@Elm_665) December 10, 2025
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