Leicester City vs Sevilla
Competition: UEFA Champions League 2016/17
Date: 14 th March, 19:45 pm BST
Stadium: King Power Stadium, Leicester
Leicester City vs Sevilla Preview and Prediction
Sevilla brought down the curtain on Claudio Ranieri’s reign as Leicester manager when they won the first leg of this tie, and can also end their opponents’ European adventure with another success in the return match.
It was ironic and not a little sad that Ranieri, who astonishingly won the Premier League title in his first season with the Foxes, was sacked the day after his team had produced their best 45 minutes of football for some time in the second half at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
At the break, Sevilla led 1-0 through Pablo Sarabia’s header and with Kasper Schmeichel having saved a penalty it could have been much worse for Leicester, who had again been showing all the fragility they had displayed over the course of a run of six defeats in eight games going into that match.
But although Joaquin Correa made it 2-0, Leicester responded with a Jamie Vardy goal that gave them plenty of hope for the second leg, in which a 1-0 win would be good enough to send them into the quarter-finals.
Ranieri will not be there, of course, dismissed only nine months after inspiring one of the greatest achievements in sporting history, although it was very much starting to look as though he was unable to reverse an inexorable slide into serious relegation trouble.
Instead, Craig Shakespeare, the Italian’s former assistant, is at the helm and he goes into this contest with a 100% win record having overseen an improvement that has resulted in 3-1 home victories over Liverpool and Hull.
However, this is a more difficult task against a team who have usurped Atletico Madrid as the closest challengers to Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga this season, Sevilla’s progress having led to their coach Jorge Sampaoli being strongly linked with the position as Luis Enrique’s successor at Camp Nou.
Also a big factor in this game is that Sevilla are targeting a fourth consecutive continental trophy after winning the Europa League for the last three years – and we would be hugely surprised if their hopes of that remarkable accomplishment were dashed by Leicester.
Leicester City vs Sevilla stats
Nine of Sevilla’s 10 matches against English opposition have contained over 2.5 goals
Both teams have scored in eight of those 10 games
Leicester’s last five home matches have all contained over 2.5 goals
Recommended bets
Sevilla to win
Over 2.5 goals
