Kick Off – 19.45 Wednesday 14th September
Leicester’s Champions League campaign gets underway in Belgium on Wednesday night and they’ll be hoping for an improved performance, following their 4-1 defeat away at Liverpool on Saturday night.
This will be Leicester’s first ever game in the Champions League and their first appearance in European competition since the 2000/01 UEFA Cup, when they lost to Red Star Belgrade in the first round. Since that season, they’ve been as far down the English pyramid as League One, but after last season’s heroics, they’re deservedly in the top tier of European competition.
Unlike Leicester, this is Brugge’s fifth Champions League campaign and their first since 2005/06. They’ve finished the group in third place in each of their last four appearances in the competition and only once has a Belgian team ever reached the knockout stages of the Champions League.
As far as tactics go, both sides like to play on the break, however Leicester have been trying to play in a style that suggests that they’re trying to control the game. It’s different from what they spent so much of last season doing and they might find more success if they go back to last season’s tactics.
Picking up points away from home is vital to qualifying from the group and Leicester find themselves in a group where this is more than possible.
Even if Brugge decide to sit deep to counter the threat of Ahmed Musa and Jamie Vardy, Leicester will still be a threat at set pieces. Robert Huth and Wes Morgan are more than capable of getting up in the air to head the ball, whilst Riyad Mahrez has form for scoring for free kicks.
This is the first time that these two sides have played each other and Leicester are more than capable of returning to the Midlands with a point.