Time to get cracking
CHRISTIAN FUCHS says Leicester are ready to write another chapter in their fairy tale.
The Foxes go into tonight’s Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid with it all to do after their 1-0 first-leg defeat in Spain last week.
But defender Fuchs says the club have spent the last few years surprising those who have written them off, and they are not about to stop now – particularly at their favourite time of the season.
Three years ago they beat playoff chasing QPR to claim the Championship title and went on to amass 102 points.
Two years ago they beat Swansea 4-0 to start a climb off the bottom of the table – where they had lain for five months – which would ultimately lead to Premier League safety.
And this time last year they were trailing West Ham 2-1 deep in stoppage time, with Jamie Vardy sent off, when they won a penalty which Leonardo Ulloa dispatched – and the charge towards the title was back on the rails.
“Everybody is expecting us to crack under the pressure, but everybody expected that last season when we won the title. Because we have such a great team spirit we don’t let it affect us,” said the Austrian left-back.
“There is a lot of pressure all the time, winning the title and then this year fighting against relegation, but we came out of that as well and now it’s the Champions League and we are just looking forward to the game.”
“It is something very special to us. We are small Leicester City and playing in the Champions League, which is already great, and being in the quarter-finals is outstanding.
“We might never be here again but right now it is one day that we have and we have to try to give everything to be successful.”
Even though Leicester have home advantage in the second leg, and Atletico a one-goal cushion, Fuchs insists the lion’s share of the pressure will be on the Spanish side, who have reached the final twice in the past three seasons.
“Atletico Madrid are the favourites given their history and everything else,” he said. “We’re here for the first time.
“The atmosphere in the ground will be incredible. I don’t think anybody loves coming to the King Power and that’s something we’ve got going for us, but nevertheless we are still the underdogs.
“Where we are right now is already a great achievement.
“To be in the quarter-finals is a real achievement and we’re the last English team left in the competition.”
Antoine Griezmann is likely to be Atletico’s danger man again after scoring the solitary goal in the first leg from a controversial penalty that was wrongly given for a foul outside the box.
Fuchs said of Griezmann: “His movement on the pitch is amazing, he finds pockets always between the lines and it is hard to defend.
“Do you push up or stay back? In the second half we adjusted well to that and it’s something we definitely learned from.”
Fuchs has been trying to lighten the mood ahead of Leicester’s biggest game of the season by playing teammate Vardy at ‘Egg Russian Roulette’.
The two take a box of six eggs – half of which are raw and half hard-boiled – and take turns to smash them over their heads.
But Fuchs has no intention of being left with egg on his face tonight.
“It’s all down to us now,” he said. “We need a goal but also we know that if we concede one then it leaves us needing three, so you have to find the right balance.
“I’m fired up and looking forward to it.”