Marcelino Nunez (right) celebrates after his lobbed goal from inside the centre circle sealed Ipswich Town's 3-1 cup win against Leicester City. (Image: Steve Waller)
Marcelino Nunez (right) celebrates after his lobbed goal from inside the centre circle sealed Ipswich Town's 3-1 cup win against Leicester City. (Image: Steve Waller)
Ipswich Town manager Gary O'Neil joked that Marcelino Nunez probably shouldn't have shot when sealing tonight's Carabao Cup win against Leicester City with a lob from inside the centre circle.
The Chilean midfielder had already restored the Blues' lead against League One opposition with a crisp strike from the edge of the box that thumped in off the inside of a post.
And he wrapped up the victory in stoppage-time when lofting a high shot from just inside the opposition half over a back-peddling Jakub Stolarczyk, the ball going in off the underside of the bar.
"I didn't think it was the best decision, to be honest!" laughed O'Neil. "Neither did Chuba (Akpom) or Sindra (Walle Egeli) who were clean through on goal! But as long as you can put it in the goal, then no one can argue. So yeah, it was a good decision in the end!"
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On Nunez's impressive start to the campaign, O'Neil said: "It took him a while to get going in pre-season. I thought it took him a while to get up to speed. Maybe it's because we're asking him to do different things. I know he played as a 10 a bit last year.
"I still saw something in him though. I had belief that he would start to come out of that in pre-season. And he has. His last two performances have been excellent.
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"It's unbelievable the energy that he has. He never stops. He's an unbelievably humble kid that just works and works. You need them in your group.
"Plus two big moments of quality to add to that as well tonight, which obviously changed the game for us. He's in a good spot and we need to recover him now for the weekend."