How does a team go from relegation candidates to Champions League quarter-finalists in three weeks?
Craig Shakespeare taking over from Claudio Ranieri has given a lift but beating Sevilla still took a monumental effort. Sportsmail looks at some of the secrets behind Leicester’s victory.
Tactical switch
Ranieri placed too much importance on studying opponents and adapting Leicester’s game plan to suit.
Players had to process exhaustive information on iPads but this compromised Leicester’s natural confidence.
Shakespeare has reverted to focusing on what Leicester do well and rebuilding belief. He ‘let slip the dogs of war’ by asking for the high press that characterised the team’s Premier League title charge.
‘We made it about us and didn’t worry too much about them,’ winger Marc Albrighton said. ‘Obviously we had to be wary but ultimately we knew that if we turned up and played our game we would get the result.’
Fully firing Vardy
Jamie Vardy was pivotal to the win, setting the tone by zipping around up front. Clearances were blocked, lost balls turned into successful passes, free- kicks won.
His role in Samir Nasri’s sending-off may have caused some distaste but he got under the skin of a more experienced European player who should have known better.
It was a world-class display that would have been capped by a deserved goal had he not skied his finish when put through late on. He punched himself in the face in response but will not dwell on it.
He was met afterwards by his closest friends, nicknamed The Inbetweeners, and it was suggested to him that the ball had struck the owners’ helicopter flying in the skies above.
New-found unity
Leicester showed team spirit to defeat a technically superior Sevilla, and that was helped by their four-day trip to Dubai, which finally gave the new signings from last summer a chance to bond with the team. That new-found unity was clear after progress was confirmed. The corridor between dressing room and families’ lounge was blocked by dozens of media people interviewing players, so Riyad Mahrez’s customary embrace with his infant daughter was tricky.
Step forward Islam Slimani. The Algeria striker picked up the little girl from Mahrez’s wife, and carried her through the throng into the arms of her father.
Schmeichel’s super saves
Kasper Schmeichel is a beacon at the back, spreading conviction to those in front. The keeper’s save of Steven Nzonzi’s penalty was his second in as many Champions League games. Leicester had practised penalties in case of a shootout and Schmeichel had failed to stop any. Yet he produced when it mattered.
He has saved a record 90 per cent of shots he has faced in this season’s Champions League, and kept five clean sheets, joint highest with Gianluigi Buffon.