It was Kasper Schmeichel’s late penalty save that preserved a 2-0 (3-2 on aggregate) win over 10-man Sevilla.
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“We also needed to show a competitive edge and I think we showed that from the first minute”. The Foxes got the necessary goal 27 minutes into the match, and it was far from any of the wondergoals they scored previous year.
While Leicester fans were celebrating their club’s revival, and the players cavorted on the pitch – not wanting the night to end – Graeme Souness was not a happy man.
The victory means the Foxes join the illustrious company of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Real Madrid in Friday’s quarter-final draw. Morgan insisted Leicester do not care who comes out of the hat in Switzerland. The winger took a couple of touches to steady himself before drilling a low left-footed shot beyond Rico.Now the onus was firmly on Sevilla, yet it was Leicester who came closest to scoring again when Vardy failed to cleanly connect.
Leicester doubled their lead on the night – and moved ahead overall – with a low strike from Albrighton nine minutes into the second half, after further good work by Mahrez.
“He helps us enjoy our football”.
“What a night, we deserved the victory”.
The Foxes should have made it 3-0 shortly after the hour mark as Vardy scuffed his shot with the goal at his mercy, and the England worldwide held his head in his hands as he spurned a golden opportunity in the box.
Sevilla perhaps would have felt hard done by after the game having seen Samir Nasri sent off for a coming together with Vardy, but they were dignified in defeat.
The Sevilla striker received a second yellow and was given his marching orders as was Sevilla manager Jorge Sampaoli as the tension ramped up. In the 79th minute, Schmeichel, whose heroics had kept Leicester in this contest in the first leg, clattered through Vitolo as he chipped the ball over the goalkeeper in the box.
Buoyed by their achievements in Europe’s top club competition, there is now the opportunity for the gloom to be permanently lifted after their poor domestic showing.
“The fault lies at the feet of the manager, but I’m really proud of the effort my boys put in tonight”.
“Why not? We are in it, we have to try to be competitive in every game”, he said.
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“We have a group of analysts who have produced a clear report of what happened in the Ranieri era, and what’s happening now with the complete about-turn in morale”, he told reporters. Their sorry play has them slumming it near the bottom of the same Premier League table they topped just a season ago, got their beloved title-masterminding manager fired, and probably should’ve seen their Champions League hopes killed off in the first leg of this tie when a thoroughly dominant Sevilla couldn’t find enough luck to win by a greater margin.
