FOXES NEED MORE THAN A BIG ATMOSPHERE
THE ATMOSPHERE in the King Power Stadium will make a big difference to Leicester City as they aim to overcome Atletico Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.
I was fortunate enough to be in Leicester for the second leg victory over Sevilla in the last 16 round and the place was absolutely bouncing. You could feel it pulsing under your feet.
It will be even wilder this time but it is not going to intimidate Diego Simeone or his players. Atletico have faced much worse on their way to becoming one of the most effective teams in Europe.
The atmosphere will inspire and lift Craig Shakespeare’s starting 11 for the biggest night in the club’s history. That raucous backing will definitely give Leicester the early momentum, and that might just carry them through and keep the European dream alive.
I still don’t think it will be enough. Leicester don’t have the quality in their side to break Atletico down and prevent them from scoring the away goal which could kill the tie, and the atmosphere. I expect the Spanish side to score which would leave Leicester needing three goals to go through, and I can’t see them doing that.
Simeone’s side has real quality throughout. They are better defensively than Sevilla and have pace and clever goalscorers upfront. Their success has come from doing what Leicester do best; defend deep and attack with pace.
And they will go to Leicester from the start and say to their opponents: ‘come and break us down’. That is not Leicester’s style and they don’t have enough guile and creative players to prise the openings in the Atletico defence.
In the time that it’s taken you to read the opening to this column, the correct decision could have been made on the controversial penalty which splits the sides after the first leg in Madrid.
You can’t blame Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson and his officials for getting it wrong. It was not a glaring refereeing error. The pace of the game is often too quick for the naked eye, so it was virtually impossible to see whether Marc Albrighton fouled Antoine Griezmann in or outside the box in real time and from his position. At the time, watching in the studio, I called penalty.
But it was a huge decision. And it was wrong. On the field, at the time, at that pace, Eriksson has a split second to make the call.
In the time that it took to get the play ready for Griezmann’s matchwinning spot-kick, the correct decision could have been made, and the players line up for a free-kick instead. What’s the problem?
My favourites for the Champions League are Juventus, and I think they will be in the semi-final draw with Monaco, Real Madrid and Atletico.
I really can’t see Barcelona producing another miracle in the Nou Camp to recover the three-goal deficit to Juve. The Italian champions are too good and will not crumble like Paris Saint-Germain did in the last round. Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci will just not let it happen. They know how to handle Barcelona’s trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar. They also have a real attacking threat with goals of Gonzalo Higuain through the middle, Paulo Dybala, who is developing into an excellent player, and Mario Mandzukic who has been a revelation as a left winger. Juventus are well-drilled under manager Massimiliano Allegri and I’ve always fancied them to break the hold of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich and lift the trophy this season.
Real Madrid will challenge them of course. They look like they have done enough with the two goals in Germany and I can’t see Bayern Munich beating them in the Bernabeu, especially after they defended so poorly in the first leg.
And that brings us to Monaco and Borussia Dortmund and you have to feel for both sets of players for trying to prepare and get through that game.
It must have been immensely difficult, particularly for the Dortmund players who must have found it near-impossible to concentrate on their football, given the events of Tuesday night.
Monaco came away with a good win and three away goals, including two from youngster Kylian Mbappe who also got two against Manchester City. They score goals for fun and won in Germany without three of their best players.