Albrighton night for the flying Foxes
Leicester write new fairytale
LEICESTER City’s incredible story took another twist last night as they sensationally reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League by dumping out Sevilla.
Goals from captain Wes Morgan and winger Marc Albrighton followed by a dramatic late penalty save from goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel — his second of the tie — gave the Foxes a 2-0 win on the night.
It overturned their 2-1 loss in Seville three weeks ago and capped a miserable evening for the visitors, who had former Manchester City star Samir Nasri dismissed for headbutting Jamie Vardy in the second half before boss Jorge Sampaoli was also sent to the stands with eight minutes remaining.
‘We pulled off the impossible again,’ declared an ecstatic Morgan following Craig Shakespeare’s first game in full-time charge since replacing Claudio Ranieri. ‘It’s incredible. I can’t quite believe it. We are newcomers in the Champions League. We didn’t expect to get this far and here we are.’
Asked if it was one of the greatest nights in the club’s history, Morgan replied: ‘It must be. We proved a lot of people wrong.
‘We will take whoever comes. It is a fantastic night.’
In truth, this tie should have been over in Spain, but Sevilla failed to take their chances and their hopes of reaching the last eight started crumbling here when Morgan opened the scoring in the 27th minute.
Vardy was brought down just outside the box and when Riyad Mahrez swung in a deep freekick, the skipper stuck out his leg to divert it in from six yards as Gabriel Mercado dozed off.
The visitors almost found a route back after 54 minutes when Sergio Escudero’s 30-yard drive smacked off the underside of the crossbar, with Wissam Ben Yedder firing the rebound over.
It was a let-off that Leicester heeded and they immediately doubled their advantage.
Sevilla’s defending was their undoing as they failed to clear Mahrez’s cross, which fell to Albrighton. He fired low past Sergio Rico from 16 yards.
Sevilla were struggling to find a way out of the mire and Vardy almost finished them off, only to miscue his 66th-minute volley.
Any hopes of a comeback were over when Nasri walked for a second yellow card and Schmeichel saved Steven N’Zonzi’s penalty in five nightmare minutes for the visitors. First, Nasri was dismissed after 74 minutes when he and Vardy squared up.
The pair clashed heads only for the Englishman to stumble backwards — with the Manchester City loanee needing to be ushered off. Several times, the Frenchman turned back to confront Vardy again before his team-mates got him off the park.
N’Zonzi then wasted Sevilla’s best chance. Schmeichel had brought down Vitolo, but made amends when saving easily from the former Stoke midfielder’s poor 79th-minute spot-kick.
Schmeichel, who spent six months on loan at Falkirk from Manchester City in 2007, said: ‘A lot of us have come a long way. I’ve been all the way down in League Two and to be in the Champions League quarterfinals is incredible.’
Shakespeare paid tribute to Ranieri after the final whistle.
‘We have just knocked out one of the best teams in Europe, in my opinion,’ he said. ‘But the performance in the first leg, when Claudio was in charge, gave us the springboard.’
Juventus also reached the last-eight thanks to completing a 3-0 aggregate win over Porto through a 42nd-minute Paulo Dybala penalty at home.
And legendary keeper Gigi Buffon was clear on who he would like to avoid in the draw.
‘Leicester are a dangerous and passionate team who can cause trouble for opponents who take the initiative,’ he said. ‘Against them, we would have everything to lose.’