Club Brugge vs Leicester City. UEFA Champions League Group G.
Jan BreydelAttendance20,970.
Wednesday 14 September 2016 19:41, UK
Leicester City will make their Champions League debut when they face Club Brugge in Belgium on Wednesday night.
The defending Premier League champions were beaten 4-1 by Liverpool on Saturday, and manager Claudio Ranieri admitted they must move on quickly ahead of their European adventure.
"We have to clear our minds and understand that in football we have to be strong, determined, aggressive and reactive," Ranieri said.
"Liverpool were better than us. Now we must clear our mind and think about the next match in the Champions League."
The Foxes will be looking to get three points at the first time of asking, with home fixtures to come against fellow Group G opponents FC Copenhagen and Porto.
Team news
Danny Simpson has travelled to Belgium and could be in contention to feature at the Jan Breydel Stadium. The defender is a doubt after he was replaced before half-time against Liverpool after picking up a hamstring problem.
Club-record signing Islam Slimani was not in the squad at Anfield, but could make his debut against Club Brugge.
For the Belgian side, striker Jose Izquierdo is fit after a quad strain but Wesley is out with ankle ligament damage and Lior Refaelov is unlikely to feature after groin surgery.
Opta Stats
This is the first competitive encounter between Club Brugge and Leicester City.
Club Brugge's only previous encounter with an English club in the European Cup/Champions League was in the 1978 final against Liverpool (0-1).
Club Brugge have only kept two clean sheets in their last 15 Champions League games.
Leicester City are in the Champions League for the first time in their history. They're the first English team to make their debut in the competition since Manchester City in 2011/12.
This is Leicester's first participation in European competition since the 2000/01 UEFA Cup when they were knocked out in the first round by Red Star Belgrade.
Leicester City are the sixth club managed by Ranieri in the Champions League, only Carlo Ancelotti has more (7). His best performance to date was a semi-final with Chelsea in 2003/04.
This is a test for Leicester, who looked dangerous at the start against Liverpool but then again I wasn't quite sure why they played like they want to start dominating games.
There's a bit of anxiety in their play at the moment and they're going into this brave new world with a system they're playing.
Brugge won't see themselves as any more of a surprise than Leicester so they may be happy to sit back, which won't suit Ranieri's men.
I actually think the away games are where they'll pick up the majority of their points because they're more comfortable with playing on the break.
I expect set-pieces to be very important to Leicester in Europe and I wouldn't be surprised if Wes Morgan gets on the scoresheet.
Charlie predicts: 1-1 and Morgan to score first (100/1 with Sky Bet)
Betting
Leicester are 7/5 with Sky Bet to make a winning start to the group stages and 9/4 to secure a draw, with Club Brugge 2/1 for the victory.
Rainieri's men are, however, up against odds of 50/1 to win their Champions League, although their hosts are 500/1, the joint longest odds of those in the competition.
Jamie Vardy heads the first goalscorer betting at 9/2 while Abdoulaye Diaby is considered Brugge's main threat at 5/1 to break the deadlock.
