Meanwhile in Turin, two-time European champions Juventus played out a goalless stalemate with three-time reigning Europa League winners Sevilla in Group H.
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Danny Drinkwater went close with a dipping volley struck on the turn with the ball nearly at ground level from outside the box, while Robert Huth might have added a fourth from another of Hernandez’s several long throws. Leicester, meantime, have retained key players such as Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy through the summer transfer window while adding new signings of the calibre of Ahmed Musa and Islam Slimani.
The victory gave Leicester the lead in its group after FC Porto and Copenhagen drew 1-1.
Leicester trained at the Jan Breydel Stadium yesterday and Ranieri, who last managed in the competition when Inter Milan lost to Marseille in the last 16 four years ago, said: “Last season everyone gave 120 per cent and everything was ideal”. “There are so many big teams”.
“But we’re not there just to be walked all over”, he added.
“Brugge are a good team, the best in Belgium”.
Managing Leicester in Europe’s elite club tournament takes him and the club into the unknown.
They were beaten 4-1 by Liverpool on Saturday and have lost twice in the league already this season but victory in Belgium on Wednesday left Ranieri delighted.
Start as you mean to go on?
Guardiola, who has worked with strikers such as Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o, David Villa and Robert Lewandowski, said Aguero was “one of the best” when asked how the Argentine ranked out of those he has coached. Only five minutes had elapsed when Albrighton applied the decisive touch after the Club Brugge goalkeeper, Ludovic Butelle, made a hash of trying to claim the ball in mid-air. They tried to find a right solution but it was very hard.
Brugge, meanwhile, want to emulate what Leicester achieved last season. However, are they one of those one-season wonders that we normally come across?
“I said from the beginning the Champions League will be an experience for us – we hope to get through and play again, “.
“It was important to show a reaction after the Liverpool defeat”.
“It’s a coach’s job to make substitutions and we’re happy that they paid off”, Zidane said.
Two ahead before half an hour had been played, Vardy described it later as “the flawless start” and, by half-time, Danny Drinkwater had come close to adding a third with an audacious left-foot volley that was dipping beneath the crossbar until Butelle tipped it over for a corner.
“We’ll just go out and do exactly what we always do and that’s give a 110 percent”. We’ve just played the first match; there’s another five to go.
Ahmed Musa, a substitute, was lively after taking over from Vardy and Leicester will look back on their first Champions League assignment as a lot of fun. We deserve to be in it and if we can put our stamp on Champions League football, it’d be ideal. “Any point away from home in the Champions League is massive”.
The simplicity of Leicester’s approach remains the same and if clubs in the Premier League have had a year to analyse and find ways to beat them, Brugge were caught cold by the vicious counter-attack and intense physical commitment which won them the title.
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Brugge, now bottom of Group G, hit the post through Abdoulay Diaby when they were 3-0 down and boss Michel Preud’homme criticised his side.
