Marti Cifuentes reveals what was said at half-time in Leicester City’s dressing room at Ashton Gate | OneFootball

Leicester City manager Marti Cifuentes has opened up on what was said at the break during his side's 2-2 draw at Bristol City

Leicester City manager Marti Cifuentes has opened up about what was said at half-time during his side’s 2-2 draw at Bristol City.

The Foxes look to have gained a little bit of momentum in recent weeks, winning three and drawing one of their last six matches. Whilst this isn’t a mind-blowing record, it’s certainly better than the barren run they went on before that.

Prior to defeating Norwich 2-1 in early November, Leicester had only won once since late August, which saw their promotion hopes begin to fade away and subsequent pressure started to pile on Cifuentes.

Their recent upturn in form and the unknown outcome of their legal dispute with the Premier League have both bought the Spaniard more time, and those at the King Power will hope that Leicester can start to claw themselves back up the division in the coming weeks.

Marti Cifuentes opens up on half-time team talk at Bristol City

Leicester looked set to add another three points to their tally last time out, after taking a two-goal lead into half-time away at Bristol City.

Strikes courtesy of Jordan Ayew and Bobby Reid put the Foxes in a commanding position and on course to secure an impressive victory against tough opposition.

However, Leicester couldn’t hold on to that lead for long, with Mark Sykes responding to Reid’s goal immediately after the break. Emil Riis fired in an equaliser seven minutes from time, which cancelled out the Foxes’ advantage and ultimately meant that the points were shared.

Although the performance marked an improvement when compared to some of Leicester’s previous outings this term, there was still obvious disappointment from supporters that they’d managed to let the lead slip.

Following this apparent collapse after half-time, Cifuentes opened up on what he said to his players during the break via the club’s website.

“I think the first half was really, really good,” stated the Leicester manager. “We created chances, we exploited the space that they left, and it was definitely a very good first 45 minutes.

“Obviously, the second goal helped us to get an even bigger advantage, and then we spoke at half-time about the need to keep pushing, to make sure we could score the third one.

“Then, probably, the game would be over, but it's unfortunate that after just one minute, the development of the second half changed. I think we panicked a little bit, we dropped too much, and credit to Bristol in the second half, they did so well.”

“We spoke about certain details at half-time and we conceded from one of those details, so it’s something we need to learn from and do much better because we know there’s still a lot of games, a lot of time, to be played.”

Marti Cifuentes must learn from Bristol City lesson

If Leicester had managed to win away at Bristol City, they would’ve been sitting on 30 points after 20 matches, and just one outside of the play-off places.

Given how much the Foxes struggled during the months of September and October, this would’ve been a remarkable position for them to head into the festive period.

However, conceding twice in the second half meant that Leicester sacrificed this opportunity, which is something Cifuentes must learn from.

If the Spaniard is serious about finishing in the top six, he can’t afford to drop points from such commanding positions. Therefore, he must analyse what went wrong at Ashton Gate in detail to ensure it doesn’t happen again.