Rodgers pleased as FA Cup holders Leicester ease to victory over Watford | OneFootball

FA Cup holders Leicester City made an impressive start to their defence of the trophy as the much-changed Foxes swept aside fellow shadow side Watford.

Youri Tielemans - who scored City's winner at Wembley last May - put them ahead from the spot after Francisco Sierralta fouled Jannik Vestergaard.

James Maddison's cool finish doubled the lead but Joao Pedro immediately pulled one back for the Hornets.

However, strikes from Harvey Barnes and Marc Albrighton sealed an emphatic win.

The sides made 16 changes between them - Leicester nine and Watford seven - from their previous Premier League games, with the majority enforced by injury or Africa Cup of Nations duty.

But Leicester's mix of youth and experience proved too much for a Watford side of similar ilk - and not even a floodlight failure that lasted several minutes could knock the hosts out of their stride.

"A really fantastic result and performance," Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers told LCFC TV. "We're into the next round. We would love to [emulate the success last season]. Once you've won the FA Cup – and we all had that feeling – it's great for us to dream and we'll dream again of getting there this year.

"There's so many top teams in it, but we're into the next round and that's important."