adminCOPENHAGEN. — Leicester City are one point away from reaching the last 16 of the Champions League after Claudio Ranieri’s players demonstrated superhuman powers of defending on Wednesday night.Eleven months ago Leicester’s squad spent the weekend in Copenhagen for a Christmas fancy-dress party dressed as superheroes and cartoon characters including Batman, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers.
And their latest visit was an heroic performance which leaves them on the brink of the knock-out stages, with a stunning save from Kasper Schmeichel in the final minute typifying their resolve.
Schmeichel wore the costume of Mr Incredible last December and the Dane’s magic moment was out of this world, diving full-length to prevent Andreas Cornelius’s header from finding the bottom corner.
It was the second time Copenhagen were left to rue the brilliance of the Leicester goalkeeper, after he produced an excellent late stop to deny Cornelius in the first game at the King Power Stadium.
Leicester have now managed four consecutive clean sheets and they will extend their European tour into next year if they take a point from their final two games, with Group G punchbag Club Brugge up next.
Ranieri said: “Kasper made a very good save and it was his only save. I have coached a lot of big champions in goal, Kasper is one of them.
“It’s difficult for me to say he is the best goalkeeper in Europe, I love my players and I can’t say no. My players are the best.
“He has had two very good seasons since I’ve been here. I am very calm when he is in goal, he is assured and strong.
“Now we have our destiny in our hands. Ten points is good, but not enough as Porto are close behind us. We have to win against Brugge and that’s not easy.”
Schmeichel’s late save was arguably the one moment of class in an ugly game that was undeserving of the Champions League theme. It was certainly a different stratosphere to the Pep Guardiola master class that humbled Barcelona the previous night.
While Leicester have sprinkled stardust in their previous three games this was at times difficult to watch as Copenhagen subjected their opponents to an aerial assault.
Artists such as Riyad Mahrez were rendered powerless while Jamie Vardy is now 12 games without a goal for club and country, though the England international was completely starved of quality service.
Before the match Ranieri said Leicester were looking to “continue the journey” but his team selection here threw everybody off course.
It was the return of the Tinkerman as Jeff Schlupp made only his third start of the season, while Daniel Amartey and Luis Hernandez were also recalled. Shinji Okazaki, who had proved so influential in the previous two games, was surprisingly dropped to the bench.
Perhaps it is now a sign of Ranieri’s strength in depth that he can rotate his squad but it was still unexpected, especially with the chance of reaching the last 16 up for grabs.
Copenhagen’s record at Parken Stadium makes daunting reading and you have to go back to August 2015 — 31 home games ago — when they last lost here in any competition, a defeat in the Europa League to Czech team Jablonec.
This was always going to be Ranieri’s toughest test so far and Copenhagen were confident, organised and very direct.
Stale Solbakken’s brutally simple tactics were designed to unsettle the Leicester defence and Paraguay international Federico Santander was frequently the target for the long ball. — Telegraph.
Online Reporter