Leicester face ‘massive’ task against Atletico
Shakespeare relishes Champions League test
Bayern Munich drawn against Real Madrid
Leicester City have drawn the team who ‘did a Leicester’ before them after they were paired with Atlético Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It is a tough match-up for the Premier League’s last representative in the competition.
Having dispatched the team who are third in La Liga – Sevilla – Leicester now face the side who are fourth, and five points behind, but Atlético and their coach Diego Simeone are much more dangerous, obdurate and wily opponents with players such as Diego Godin, Koke and Gabi. Two Champions League finals in the past three seasons show what formidable cup campaigners Atlético are (although the same can be said of Sevilla) and Simeone has made it his mission to eventually win this competition.
Atlético won the Spanish title in 2014 against the odds, overcoming both Real Madrid and Barcelona, while playing 4-4-2 and counterattacking football, and although they have not come from nowhere in the way that Leicester did – after all it was Atlético’s 10th title to Leicester’s first, last season – there are Cinderella similarities.
“Facing a team who have reached the final in two of the last three seasons is a massive challenge but it’s just the kind of tie you expect in the quarter-finals of the Champions League,” said Leicester manager Craig Shakespeare.
“Atlético Madrid are a very good team with some fantastic individuals with experience in the competition, but we’ll be ready to give everything to progress.”
The first leg will be at the cauldron that is the Vicente Calderón, with Atlético moving to their new home this summer.
Atlético will have to face Real Madrid, away from home, four days before the first leg and although the Champions League is their priority, they cannot afford to play a weakened team in a Madrid derby.
Even so they are strong opponents, and clear favourites to go through, and Leicester will know that Antoine Griezmann and Kevin Gameiro, Atlético’s French strikers, along with Yannick Carrasco, will pose a far greater threat than Sevilla’s forwards.
Shakespeare, however, said that Leicester would take the same front-foot, aggressive approach that Sevilla could not deal with.
“That’s what we hope. That is what is expected,” he explained. “We are at our best when we do that. You saw results in terms of the performances against Liverpool and Hull, and now Sevilla. The players think that’s when they are at their best so that’s what we’ll encourage them to do.”
Atlético are also wary of the threat Leicester pose, and the chances spurned by Sevilla, with director Clemente Villaverde saying after the draw: “We have shown we can compete in this competition in these last years and we are confident we can avoid [such] mistakes and ensure our passage.
“I don’t know about that [Leicester being the weakest team left in the competition] as in their last tie and in the group they showed they are a team who must be taken into account.”
There is history between the two sides and, also, controversy with Leicester having faced Atlético twice before – which is remarkable given their limited involvement in European competition having taken part only three times previously – in the first round of the Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1961 and then in the Uefa Cup first round in 1997, losing both ties.
That latter tie has already provoked talk of Leicester wanting revenge given referee Rémi Harrel sent off Garry Parker in the second leg at Filbert Street when the game was in the balance. It eventually finished 4-1 on aggregate to Atlético who, ominously, have never lost in Europe to an English side (won five, drawn five).
Leicester are, of course, the only Premier League team left in the Champions League and the reward for Bayern Munich, who knocked out Arsenal, is a match-up with the holders Real Madrid in the tie of the round.
Monaco, who triumphed over Manchester City, face Borussia Dortmund while Juventus are up against Barcelona.