City aim to hit first milestone
BEATING AEK ATHENS AT KING POWER STADIUM TONIGHT WILL SECURE TOP SPOT IN THEIR EUROPA LEAGUE GROUP
VICTORY over AEK Athens would see Leicester City hit the first significant milestone of their manager’s tricky second season.
Beating the Greek side tonight would guarantee top spot in their Europa League group, not only earning themselves a seed for the last 32 draw next Monday, but also achieving an aim Brendan Rodgers set out at the start of the season.
Once top spot is secured, City can then turn their attention to the Premier League, where they are bidding to qualify for Europe again.
While finishing in the European spots in Rodgers’ first full season in charge at the King Power Stadium was somewhat of an upset by City, doing so a second time would be an even greater achievement, the manager has said.
“That was what we wanted to achieve at the start of the qualification phase,” Rodgers said on the prospect of topping the Europa League group.
“Coming into Europe, it was a new experience and posed a new challenge for the group, having to mix European football and domestic football.
“We’ve tried to embrace and enjoy that challenge and for us to be in a position to win the group, that’s brilliant.
“Let’s see if we can get first place – because our ambition is to be the best we can – and then we can put it to bed until the new year and concentrate domestically.
“My challenge here was to try to get Leicester into the top echelons of the league and hopefully that would then allow us to play in European competition.
“In my first full season, we’ve been able to do that. The challenge then is, because it’s easy to do things once, can we do that a second time?”
While Rodgers has plenty of silverware domestically, he has never made it beyond the last 32 in Europe, having reached that stage of the Europa League twice with Liverpool and twice with Celtic before being knocked out.
But he says his own personal ambitions are not focused on trophies.
“I never think about it like that,” he said. “My yardstick is always about influence, how
I can influence players and develop them.
“Of course we want to win, but it’s not at the forefront of my mind in terms of worrying about myself and trophies.
“There are some great managers that never get to do that because of teams they work with.
“I love my job here and my work here, helping the club develop and improve.
“In every competition we’re in, it’s trying to be the best we can.”