Leicester City vs Queens Park Rangers

Queens Park Rangers head to the King Power Stadium to lock horns with Premier League whipping boys Leicester City in a high-stakes FA Cup third-round tie.  

Leicester City climbed to the FA Cup throne as recently as 2020/21, yet their status in English football has since diminished significantly. Despite securing a swift Premier League promotion last season, the Foxes’ top-flight tenure is under imminent threat after five consecutive league defeats demoted them to the bottom three. A 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa last weekend intensified the pressure on new manager Ruud van Nistelrooy, opening up a two-point gap to safety. Therefore, Leicester may find this FA Cup tie a welcoming distraction. However, they can’t afford to take QPR lightly, considering they were on the receiving end of a 2-1 scoreline when they met in the Championship last season. That defeat halted their two-game winning H2H streak on home soil. 

On the other hand, Queens Park Rangers have come flying out of the traps at the start of 2025, seeing off Watford and Luton by 2+ goals ‘to one.’ Those victories have reignited QPR’s pursuit of a coveted top-six finish in the Championship after back-to-back winless league outings toward the end of the last calendar year (D1, L1), firing them within an eight-point distance of sixth-placed West Brom. However, Marti Cifuentes’ men have stuttered on the road lately, going winless in their four most recent away matches (D3, L1). A lack of firepower in the front third saw them score a dismal average of 0.5 goals per game during that sequence.