Keep Ticking The Games Off, Says Ricardo

- Leicester City are up against Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship next
- It’s a 3pm kick-off at King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon
- Ricardo Pereira looked towards the upcoming encounter with Boro
- LCFC Women are also on Filbert Way this weekend as part of a double-header

City’s lead at the league’s summit increased in midweek following a 2-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday, stretching the gap back to third place to 14 points ahead of the weekend’s fixtures.

Now moving on to Saturday’s clash with Middlesbrough, a 3pm kick-off at King Power Stadium, there is only one sustained focus on the players’ minds. One of just four teams to overcome Leicester in the league so far this term, the Teessiders will naturally pose a threat, however.

The experienced defender commented: “It’s important to keep winning, keep this momentum and gain the most points we can, especially because we know we are coming into a part of the season that is really challenging and important.

“We have to keep going and staying on top as we want to do, but they have a good team, they are aggressive. It’s still in the back of our minds the game there; we were a little bit unfortunate.

“Playing this game at home, we want to keep ticking the box of another game, another win and that’s what we’ll try to do. Four or five games ago we had an eight-point lead and we lost five points in two games so things can change quickly in a bad way or a good way.

“We knew we needed to go on a run again, winning games to try to increase the gap and fortunately that’s what we did and we’ll try and keep going like this.”

Another quick turnaround in fixtures means that the rest and recuperation is key. For Ricardo, playing consistently in the side this term, with 34 outings across all competitions and another goal added to his tally last weekend, is exactly what he craved following recent injury problems.

“It’s just about recovering,” the Portuguese full-back explained. “You play and then you need to recover because you know it’ll straight away be into another game, so you cannot switch off in a certain way.

“We’re used to playing three games (in a week) and it’s important to have the whole squad ready because we’ll have changes from game to game and everyone can help.

“It was something that I wanted the most; to stay fit and be available and then the rest would come and I’m really happy for it.”

Back on Filbert Way for the second time in five days, LCFC Women also play on home soil 24 hours later, tackling Bristol City in the Barclays Women’s Super League to complete a Foxes double-header. A duo of wins would be the ideal way to cap it off, the 30-year-old added.

“Where do I sign up for that?,” he smiled. “It’ll be good to play at home again and have the fans helping us to try and win another game and for the Women on Sunday to do the same and it’d be a perfect weekend.”

All times GMT.