Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
With Craig Shakespeare being named Leicester boss until the end of the season his next act will be to further The Foxes progress in the Champions League. Tonight the defending Premier League champions host Sevilla at The King Power Stadium looking to overturn a first leg deficit but with the knowledge that they have a vital away goal already in the bank.
After their first leg trip to Seville which in turn would prove to be Claudio Ranieri’s last game in charge, it looked as if Leicester were dead and buried with the Europa League winners of the past three season going into a 2-0 lead and had it not been for Kasper Schmeichel the score could have been a lot higher, Jorge Sampaoli’s team were well in the driving seat but the complexion of the tie was changed late on as Jamie Vardy halved the deficit and that has left the tie on a knife edge going into Tonight’s return.
Leicester had the weekend off after the F.A. Cup curtailed the Premier League programme, whether that means there winning momentum is halted we will have to wait and see but it makes a world of difference when you are winning matches as you cannot wait to play the next game, that is a stark contrast to the beginning of the year when they began the run of form which would not only see them drop into the bottom three but also cost Ranieri his job.
Sevilla meanwhile lost further ground in the race for the La Liga title as they were held to a somewhat surprise 1-1 draw at home to Leganes on Saturday. After going behind early on they required former Manchester City striker Stevan Jovetic to equalise just before the break. It was a frustrating game though as Sevilla failed to find the winner and may well now have to resign themselves to a still impressive 3rd place finish come the end of the season.
Leicester have saved some of their best football for this competition and will very much fancy their chances of progressing to the Quarter Finals, the line up for that stage already looks ominous and if they were to advance then there really would be no easy ties for them. But that said that is what their fans dreamed off when they won the title last May and they are potentially just 90 minutes away from landing the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid.
At 2-0 down in the first leg they looked without a hope but that Jamie Vardy strike has now blown the tie wide open, so much so that I have a sneaky feeling that Leicester may well be able to edge the necessary 1-0 required to book a quarter final berth. I’m going to stick my neck on the line and go for a Leicester win and move on thanks to the away goal rule.
