LEICESTER City head to the Spanish capital for the first leg of their quarter-final tie with Atletico Madrid, aiming to keep alive their latest fairytale adventure.
Madrid and the Foxes – two in-form teams with comparable playing styles – meet at the Vincente Calderon Stadium for the first leg of a quarter-final tie that City know will have a huge bearing on the overall result.
Craig Shakespeare’s side will be hoping to cause another huge upset in the com- petition having beaten an- other Spanish side, Sevilla, in the previous round.
He confirmed that Wes Morgan is ruled out of the all important meeting but is rest assured that Nigerian international, Wilfred Ndidi is more than capable to midwife the Foxes to victory in Madrid.
“Wilfred Ndidi is fine. He trained partly yesterday and he’ll take part in the whole session today. Hopefully he’ll come through that okay, which is what we’re expecting. “I don’t think so at all
(that Everton defeat would hamper the players). The players are resilient. I have just told them we have been on a really good run and we have to start again”,Shakespaere stated.
The Foxes head into the match as heavy underdogs, although Shakespeare can take heart from his side’s last visit to Spain.
Leicester, then managed by former boss Claudio Ranieri, claimed a crucial away goal in a 2-1 defeat to Sevilla at La Bombonera.
That proved to be Ranieri’s final game in charge of the club, leaving Shakespeare to mastermind a 2-0 victory in the return fixture at the King Power Stadium.
Leicester are the only English team left in the competition after Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City all failed to progress to the quarter-finals.
Atlético Madrid have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the fourth consecutive sea- son. They had only reached that stage once previously (1996/97).