Sevilla vs Leicester City. UEFA Champions League First Knockout Round.
Ramon Sanchez PizjuanAttendance38,834.
Wednesday 22 February 2017 20:04, UK
Leicester will look to put their relegation fears aside when they travel to Spain to face Sevilla in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Claudio Ranieri's Premier League champions have lost four of their last five games in all competitions, were dumped out of the FA Cup by 10-man Sky Bet League One side Millwall on Saturday and have failed to score a league goal in 2017.
However, it's been a different story in Europe as Leicester became the first team since Malaga in 2012/13 to finish top of their group on their Champions League debut.
This will be a monumental task for Leicester against a side which has won the Europa League for three consecutive seasons.
The Spanish side are also third in La Liga, just three points behind Real Madrid, who have two games in hand.
Islam Slimani remains out for Leicester as he struggles to overcome a groin injury.
The striker has battled the problem despite returning against Swansea earlier this month, meaning Shinji Okazaki is expected to start up front alongside Jamie Vardy.
Leonardo Ulloa is unlikely to feature as he nurses a thigh problem while Robert Huth is in danger of missing the second leg having collected two bookings in Europe this season.
This is the first competitive encounter between Sevilla and Leicester.
Leicester have never beaten Spanish opposition in European competition (D1 L3), with all games coming against Atletico Madrid (1961/62 Cup Winners Cup and 1997/98 UEFA Cup).
Meanwhile, Sevilla have lost three of their four Champions League games against English opposition (W1), their only win coming against Arsenal at home in November 2007 (3-1).
Sevilla have reached the Champions League knockout stages in three of their four appearances. However, they've never gone past the round-of-16.
Sevilla have kept more clean sheets than any other side in this season's Champions League (5 in 6 games).
However, Sevilla and Leicester only scored seven goals in the group stages, the lowest tally among teams left in this season's competition alongside Atletico Madrid.
Sevilla have won 10 of their 14 Champions League games (D1 L3) at home and have never failed to score in any of those 14 outings.
Leicester's possession average of 41.6 per cent in the group stages is the lowest of any team to have reached this season's round-of-16.
Only Marco Verratti has completed more passes (479) than Sevilla midfielder Steven N'Zonzi (459) in this season's Champions League.
Samir Nasri has only recorded one goal and one assist in 16 Champions League knockout games.
Jamie Vardy has had two shots on target in his first 424 minutes in the Champions League - none of them have found the back of the net.
You can see the annoyance and anger in Ranieri's face but is he changing things for the positive? Have they all stopped listening? There's so much going on at the club.
If you look at what got them into this competition it was their spirit, togetherness and absolute hunger and I don't see much of that left in them. I keep mentioning the centre-backs as their big problem and I think he should try a back five.
I don't really think Leicester have got much of a chance and people are suggesting it could be a thrashing but I think if they sit in with a packed defence and leave a bit of pace up top then they can limit the damage.
Charlie predicts: 2-0 and Vitolo to score first (22/1 with Sky Bet)
Leicester are 8/1 to defy their recent form an win in Sevilla while the Spanish side are strong favourites at 4/11. The draw can be backed at 18/5.
The Soccer Saturday pundits are all in agreement that Leicester will struggle with Matt Le Tissier and Phil Thompson predicting Sevilla to win to nil at Evens.
Nasri has only recorded one goal and one assist in 16 Champions League knockout games but is 12/1 for him to score from outside the area while Vardy is 10/1 to break his goalscoring duck by scoring first.
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