You fight, today you may play well, if tomorrow you play so-so it is not important. That is my philosophy’.
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Claudio Ranieri’s reigning Premier League champions Leicester City got their debut campaign in the competition off to a flying start beating Club Brugge 3-0.
“For us everything is new, I want to see how my players respond”, he told reporters. ‘I don’t want excuses.
An away trip to Club Brugge of Belgium was not exactly the stuff of Leicester’s European dreams, but they showed some of the verve they have been missing so far this season as Riyad Mahrez struck twice, one of them a sumptuous free-kick and the other a penalty. “We’ll have a meeting about Burnley now and we’ve got to get our heads switched on to them”.
‘The players recovered very well and a good session today (Friday).
Vardy forced the French stopper into another save on the stroke of half-time after latching onto Slimani’s flick, but Ranieri had to be content with a two-goal cushion going into the break after a vintage performance from his charges in the opening 45 minutes.
“The massive thing is the Premier League in my opinion – bigger than the Champions League”, said the Italian. “If they think about the music I ring my bell”, he said.
“I’m used to this because always in my career when something happens it’s finished”.
Lyon enjoyed a memorable Champions League opener in their new stadium – they comfortably saw off the challenge of Dynamo Zagreb 3-0. Forget and think about next match.
Taking over from Nigel Pearson, he recognised very quickly that he had every element of a good team in place and after a few half-hearted attempts to change things, he made a decision to leave well enough alone. Forget Brugge, forget Liverpool.
Bet365 make Leicester 11/8 favourites to win this one with Brugge 2/1 outsiders. We hope to go through the group and play again, but for us also it is important if we don’t achieve the first two positions, to go into the Europa League.
“But we have started well”.
Ranieri was in firm but relaxed mood on Friday.
“If he doesn’t score, I take the neck and I crush the neck”, he joked. I really like the way they play.
Don’t forget, all Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, Champions League matches are covered by the bet365 Euro Soccer Bonus, where you could earn a BONUS OF UP TO 100% on your returns on pre-match accumulator bets. Maybe he is very exhausted of listening to dilly-ding, dilly-dong and prefers the Champions League music!
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Besides Jeffrey Schlupp, who has a muscle strain, Leicester have a relatively fit squad for the game.
