Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Foxes ‘pinching themselves’ ahead of Atletico tie
LEICESTER boss Craig Shakespeare admits the club should still be pinching themselves as the Foxes target the Champions League semi-finals — exactly eight years after winning Sky Bet League One.
The Foxes will aim to overturn a 1-0 deficit when they host Atletico Madrid in tonight’s quarter-final second leg.
On April 18, 2009, Leicester beat Southend 2-0 to win the League One title thanks to a Matty Fryatt double and now stand on the brink of the Champions League’s final four.
Shakespeare was assistant to Nigel Pearson when the Foxes went up and conceded their rise has been the stuff of dreams.
He said: “The focus just has to be on that game, you can look ahead and look back but you have to focus on the here and now.
“Where the club has come from is remarkable and if you had said last year ‘you’d win the Premier League and this year be in the quarter-finals and with a chance to be in the semi-finals’ everyone would have been pinching themselves.”
Leicester lost at the Vicente Calderon last week after referee Jonas Eriksson awarded a controversial penalty after Antoine Griezmann was fouled by Marc Albrighton outside of the area.
Griezmann scored the spot-kick and Shakespeare said last week the referee made a mistake but insisted he has moved on.
“No it’s not gnawing away, the referee gave his decision and the last thing the club and players need is me harping on about it,” he said.
“We have to get on with it. The referee made his decision — although it’s there for everyone to see it’s the wrong one.
“We have to make sure we’re ready and focused for the game.”