Marcelino Nunez scored a sensational goal from the halfway line to help Ipswich claim a hard-fought 3-1 win over Leicester in the Carabao Cup.

This had been a Premier League fixture only 15 months ago, but Leicester arrived at Portman Road fresh from a painful home loss to Burton in League One and yet under-fire Russell Martin watched the Foxes edge a goalless first half.

Sindre Walle Egeli showed Premier League quality for Gary O’Neil’s team with a smart left-footed finish to break the deadlock after 62 minutes before 19-year-old Olabade Aluko earned Leicester a deserved leveller five minutes later.

However, ex-Norwich midfielder Nunez fittingly had the final say in the meeting between two former Canaries team-mates.

Nunez rifled home off a post after 71 minutes to score for the first time at Portman Road since his move last summer and added a wonderful 50-yard lob in stoppage time to help Ipswich reach the Carabao Cup third round for only the second time in 11 seasons.

Martin was booed after Leicester lost to Burton and watched his team almost gift an opener inside 33 seconds, but Chuba Akpom could not profit.

Leicester, to their credit, quickly settled and Brighton loanee Tom Watson sent one shot wide before he tested Christian Walton with a curled effort.

Ipswich back-up goalkeeper Walton thwarted Christian McFarlane’s attempted chip in the 20th minute after a lovely Louis Page pass and at the other end Jakub Stolarczyk made a fine save from Dara O’Shea’s header.

However, Leicester finished the half strongly when Conor Chaplin’s curler was pushed wide by Walton.

Ipswich midfielder Kasey McAteer had a goal ruled out for offside two minutes after half-time before Chaplin was withdrawn to a standing ovation on the hour mark by Martin, who then watched the home side break the deadlock in the 62nd minute.

Akpom played through to Jack Clarke and he squared for Egeli to slot home.

Five minutes later, Leicester equalised when Page’s corner was flicked on by Bobby De Cordova-Reid and 19-year-old Aluko got a faint touch to score his first professional goal.

Nunez ensured there would be no upset when he fired in via a post after Woyo Coulibaly had given the ball away and after Akpom squandered a one-on-one chance, the Chile international grabbed a second.

After the ball dropped inside the centre circle, Nunez spotted Stolarczyk off his line and lobbed over the Leicester goalkeeper in incredible fashion to make it back-to-back wins for O’Neil.

The managers…

Ipswich’s Gary O’Neil:

“I didn’t think it was the best decision to be honest!

“Neither did Chuba (Akpom) or Sindre who were clean through on goal, but as long as you can put it in the goal no one can argue, so good decision in the end!

“The last two performances Marcelino has been excellent. Two great goals, unbelievable energy that he has, never stops and unbelievably humble kid that works and works.

“You need them in your group and two big moments of quality to add to that which changed the game for us.

“He is in a good spot and need to keep him going. We need to keep him going for the weekend and it is now a big push to get everyone going on Sunday (at Manchester United).”

Leicester’s Russell Martin:

“The players were amazing and I loved it. I loved the performance.

“We were unlucky to lose and definitely unlucky to lose 3-1, but after Saturday we spoke a lot about bravery, aggression and intensity. With and without the ball they showed so much.

“The only thing missing is we didn’t win but if we play like that, it is really exciting for us. We’ll have a lot of fun and win a lot of games.

“It is so early and that is why I feel really calm about it. The fans were amazing as well. Hopefully they felt a bit of energy after that performance.”