Leicester a surprise winner in Champions
LEICESTER, England First, the Premier League title. Now, the Champions League quarterfinals.
Is there no end to Leicester’s soccer fairytale?
The improbable rise of a previously unheralded club from central England touched new heights on Tuesday when Leicester beat Sevilla 2-0 to reach the last eight of Europe’s elite club competition, courtesy of a 32 aggregate victory.
Two years ago to the day, Leicester was in last place in the Premier League after a dour 0-0 home draw with Hull. On Friday, its name will be in a pot alongside the cream of the continent — Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and two others — in the Champions League draw in Nyon.
“We proved a lot of people wrong and pulled off the impossible again,” said Leicester captain Wes Morgan, one of the scorers inside an atmospheric King Power Stadium.
“We will take whoever comes.”
That’s the kind of uncompromising attitude that carried Leicester to the Premier League title last season at odds of 5,000-1 and is sweeping the team to another potential miracle.
No team is likely to feel comfortable in the cauldron that is the King Power Stadium on nights like these.
“Let slip the dogs of war,” urged a message on a giant banner behind one of the goals before the match. It was a line from ‘Julius Caesar,’ a play by William Shakespeare — the English playwright who has the same surname as Leicester’s new manager.
Craig Shakespeare recently took over from Claudio Ranieri, the coach who orchestrated Leicester’s sensational Premier League title triumph but was fired because the team had found itself fighting a relegation battle in its championship defence.
Shakespeare has three wins from three matches in charge, and has got the team playing back at last season’s levels. JUVENTUS 1, PORTO
TURIN, Italy — Paulo Dybala’s penalty set Juventus on its way to a 1-0 win over 10-man Porto on Tuesday and a place in the Champions League quarterfinals.
A day after he said it was his “dream” to score past veteran goalkeeper Iker Casillas, Dybala converted from the spot in the 42nd minute after Maxi Pereira was sent off for handling the ball on the goal line.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side progressed from the Round of 16 with a 3-0 victory on aggregate and maintained its impressive record at the Juventus Stadium.