Leicester City's under-21 side put six past Fulham's development squad in the EFL Trophy's Group South stage on Tuesday evening. The 6-1 scoreline reflected a performance that settled early and never let up. By then the visitors had already begun to understand they were facing a side in full flow.
Admir Bristric opened the scoring in the fifteenth minute and added two more before half-time, making it 3-0 to the hosts. Tom Watson pulled one back on forty minutes and briefly brought Fulham level at 45+2 before S. Chingwaro restored the two-goal lead four minutes later. Bobby Reid made it six-one in the fiftieth, and that was the final goal of a match that had been decided long before the break.
Substitutions came thick and fast after half-time, with Leicester bringing on Caleb Okoli, William Thomas-Alves and Jayden Quashie among others. Fulham responded with D. Casey and Quashie themselves, but the game had already slipped away. And here's the thing — the substitutions told you everything about a match that had gone quiet in the stands.
Leicester dominated the numbers as you would expect. Sixty-five per cent possession, 118 attacks to 59, and 11 shots on target with 14 off target. Fulham managed only three shots on target and two off, with goalkeeper M. Zeppa making five saves to keep the deficit down. The statistics simply confirmed what the scoreboard showed.
Leicester's recent form had been mixed, with a 1-1 draw at Barnsley and a 4-3 win over Stockport County among their last five results. Fulham's U21 side had lost all three group games and sat fourth with zero points — an empty table that said nothing yet. This result changed little in the standings but ended a run the visitors would rather forget.
We had given Fulham a 49 per cent chance of victory, but the match went another way entirely. Leicester had the game won inside twenty minutes and never looked back. To be fair, the hosts simply outclassed a side still finding its feet.
