“Yes, Leicester won the Premier League, fantastic, but it is behind us”.
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For as impressive as Claudio Ranieri’s team were in overcoming unprecedented financial obstacles in order to win the club’s first ever Premier League title back in May, they have not quite hit the heights of 2015/16 in the early stages of the new campaign.
Despite the low attendance, many Foxes fans will be forced to watch the game in bars around the town as their allocation is full and many have travelled with tickets.
The former Nottingham Forest defender admitted he has been used to watching the Champions League on TV with Leicester never considered a contender before last season’s surprise title success.
Last year’s PFA Player of the Year signed a new contract with Leicester in the days before fellow Algerian Slimani arrived from Sporting CP but had previously rejected a new deal due to interest from a number of high-profile clubs. “Now we play the first match, there are another five.it was good for us to start our story with a victory”.
The champions entertain Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.
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 chose to leave well enough alone.
“If we get Roma, everyone will say “Roma, we want to see it” but they might eliminate us”, added Preud’homme, whose team are 10th in the domestic league after three defeats in six games. 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. The visitors doubled their lead through Riyad Mahrez’s stunning free-kick just before the half-hour mark, the Foxes’ playmaker making it 3-0 with a second-half spot kick after Jamie Vardy had been brought down by home goalkeeper Ludovic Butelle. They told me they are OK and they have to show me this on the pitch.
Ranieri said he was delighted for Mahrez following the match, who scored a brace against the Belgian side. “We played well in Bruges”. “He took the responsibility”.
“Maybe the music woke up him!” the Leicester manager said. “If they beat us it’s because they’re better than us – don’t worry”, he said. “Maybe he is exhausted of hearing dilly-ding dilly-dong all the time”. Brugge had control of the ball and moved it well, but we had control of the match.
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“After two minutes we could have scored and the game was totally different”, lamented their coach Michel Preud homme.
