“It was important to show a reaction after the Liverpool defeat”.
Advertisement
Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri credited the Champions League music with waking up Riyad Mahrez following his two goals in Wednesday’s win over Club Brugge.
Let me repeat that: Leicester City, a team that three seasons ago was happily dashing about in England’s second tier, somehow plucked up more points than Manchester United and Arsenal and Liverpool and Chelsea and everyone else in the country to win the biggest league in the world last season, and are now competing in the Champions League alongside clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
But it was the ideal performance from the Foxes, 50-1 to win the competition after last season’s shock Premier League victory, although things could have been so different if the hosts had taken a glorious opportunity after two minutes.
“If we don’t achieve the first two positions we’ll go in the Europa League, that’s our desire to continue in Europe although the Champions League is better”. They tried to find a right solution but it was very hard.
“Maybe at the beginning we surprised them”. No matter what happens, though, that Leicester City are in the Champions League with a good shot of making some serious noise will never be anything other than insane. It’s hard to play against teams with very good experience.
“We have started well and give us confidence and now we have to stay calm and put our mind to the next match on Saturday”.
“It’s been 16-years since Leicester last experienced European football”.
There will be tougher matches to come for Leicester – their next fixture is a home tie against Group G favourites Porto on 27 September – but the romp against Brugge will have given the Foxes the self-belief that they’re good enough for the Champions League.
Borussia Dortmund flattened Legia Warsaw 6-0 in the Polish capital, but favoured Tottenham Hotspur fell 1-2 in London to Monaco.
Advertisement
Elsewhere, Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick as Manchester City defeated Borussia Monchengladbach 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium to preserve Pep Guardiola’s 100 percent record in charge of the team.
