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Filip Benkovic was "a model professional" as he played 90 minutes for Leicester City's Under-23s in front of a watching Brendan Rodgers.

The Croatian centre-back helped City's development squad draw 1-1 with Blackburn at the King Power Stadium on Monday night in their first home match of the new Premier League 2 season.

Benkovic has been building his fitness after suffering an ankle injury at the European Under-21 Championships and will be hoping to feature in Rodgers' first-team plans soon, having been a regular under the boss during his Celtic loan spell last term.

Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu have been the first-team's centre-back pairing in the opening two Premier League games, with skipper Wes Morgan on the bench.

City Under-23s, who drew their first game at champions Everton last week, stayed unbeaten on Monday thanks to a second-minute finish from summer recruit Ali Reghba, the Irishman latching on to a ball from Callum Wright, playing against his former club.

City missed several clear-cut chances over the course of the evening and were made to pay. Blackburn's Joe Grayson scored just after the hour, flicking a free-kick beyond senior goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic, who had been afforded a run-out for Steve Beaglehole's development squad.

"I thought they did fine," said Beaglehole's assistant Ben Petty on the performances of Benkovic and new signing Vontae Daley-Campbell, who played an hour at right-back on his home debut.

"I thought Filip, obviously coming down from the senior squad, (he was a) model professional. He was very, very solid.

(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

"It was a big night for Vontae, obviously making his debut at King Power Stadium. (He was) very nervous before the game and he did a really good job for 60 minutes.

"He had a tough opponent against him, but he did fine and he’ll be a good signing for us.

Petty added: "It was a good test and I thought Blackburn were excellent tonight."Our passing at times wasn’t as clinical as we would have liked, but you know, it’s the development squad for a reason and we’re trying to mirror what the first team are doing and their style.

"We’re asking the players to play in a slightly different style this season and we saw little patches tonight, but again, we need to work on the training ground a little bit more.

"It’s good to see us creating some chances, though, because at Everton last week, as well as we defended, we didn’t create enough."