Can Shakespeare add another chapter to Leicester tale?

Since Ranieri was sacked, Shakespeare has won all three of his matches in charge of the Premier League champions, and the newly installed manager was full of praise for his players.

Leicester City manager Craig Shakespeare hails his players after arguably the greatest result in the club’s history.

Sevilla, sitting third in La Liga, were widely expected to dispatch Leicester City, who stunned the football world by winning the English Premier League (EPL) a year ago but are now only 3 points above the drop zone in the 2016-17 season. He just won them the premiership trophy a season ago and he did so against all expectations but since the season started, he had found it hard producing the magic that led them to a title last season.

Under Shakespeare, they are playing in a manner created to unsettle any side who takes the measured approach – and they will do it backed by a 90-minute wall of sound.

“Who do I prefer not to play?”

“When you’re a manager and you’ve won the league, are you going to turn up the next season and change things?”

On an emotional and breathless evening at the King Power stadium, Wes Morgan and Marc Albrighton scored the goals that gave Leicester a 2-0 win and a 3-2 victory on aggregate.

Asked whether he dreamt of lifting the Champions League trophy, he said: “Yeah, you know, we achieved the impossible winning the Premier League and I’m sure no one would have thought we’d get this far in the Champions League, so why not dream?”

Manchester City are looking to join Leicester in the quarter-finals.

But Shakespeare is preparing to bring his players back down to earth by preventing them watching the quarter-final draw, which could see them pitted against European giants including Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. But I think as a football club, we have to know our strengths. “We might be the surprise team”.

Atletico, which made it to two Champions League finals in the last three seasons and won the Spanish league in 2014, is trying to re-establish itself as the third force in Spanish soccer after a hard start this season. “We have to keep our focus on Tuesday’s game, which it will be very important for us”. Sevilla, winners of the last three Europa Leagues, saw Samir Nasri sent off late on after he was shown an extraordinary second yellow card for aiming a headbutt at Jamie Vardy.

“To beat Sevilla, the three-time Europa League winners who had not conceded a goal away from home in this competition, can not be sniffed at”. It was an unbelievable evening, I’m proud of all the boys. They had to sack him, although it came as a shock to a lot of people.