The fairytale rise of Leicester City touched new heights on Tuesday when the English champion reached the Champions League quarterfinals with a 2-0 home win over Sevilla.
Leicester’s 2-1 deficit from the first leg in southern Spain was turned into a 3-2 victory on aggregate at an atmospheric King Power Stadium thanks to Wes Morgan’s close-range strike in the 27th minute and Marc Albrighton’s goal in the 54th.
Sevilla, which had playmaker Samir Nasri sent off in the 74th minute for collecting a second booking for a head butt, would have taken the game to extra time if Steven N’Zonzi had converted a penalty in the 79th.
Instead, it was saved by Kasper Schmeichel, who made amends for giving away the spot kick.
Exactly two years ago, Leicester was in last place in the Premier League after a 0-0 home draw with Hull.
Now, as the unlikely champion of England after winning last season’s Premier League at odds of 5,000-1, the previously unheralded club from central England can look forward to being involved in Friday’s quarterfinals draw in the Champions League with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus.
Juventus, meanwhile, eliminated FC Porto in Tuesday’s other game thanks to a 1-0 win in the second leg, completing a 3-0 aggregate victory.
It was a sorry night for Sevilla and its frustrated coach Jorge Sampaoli, who was sent to the stands in the closing stages for complaining to the match officials.
The Spanish side were looking to qualify for the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time but couldn’t match the intensity of the home side.
As for Leicester, life just gets better in its first season in Europe’s top club competition.
This was its third straight win since last season’s title-winning coach Claudio Ranieri was fired, with the team fighting a relegation battle in its Premier League title defence.
Craig Shakespeare is Leicester’s new coach and he has the chance to orchestrate another miracle.
Super Eagles midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, featured for the entire duration of the game for the Foxes while Ahmed Musa was missing once again.
