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Leicester City may have stumbled to a 3-0 defeat against Chelsea on Saturday, but Claudio Ranieri’s men weren’t allowing that to affect their mood as they prepare to take on FC Copenhagen in the Champions League today.
Striker Jamie Vardy, midfielder Riyad Mahrez and record signing Islam Slimani were all smiles during the session, while a cheerful-looking Ranieri kept a watchful eye on his squad.
Slimani in particular looked to be enjoying himself as he completed a drill during the session at the club’s Belvoir Drive training ground yesterday.
Less than 48 hours earlier they’d been put to the sword by Chelsea as goals from Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Victor Moses consigned them to their fourth league defeat of the season. Ranieri’s side have won just one of their last six outings in the league and midfielder Marc Albrighton admits they’re struggling to recreate the magic that took them to the title last time round.
“It is not really acceptable to keep losing in this manner,’ he said after the Chelsea defeat. “We had a chat in the dressing room. We feel we need to be stronger, harder to play against and harder to beat, harder to score against. It’s not the way we are playing, it is about fight. We need to fight more. We have lost the fight from last year. We need to get that back, and get it back quickly.
The reigning Premier League champions do have reason to smile despite the loss against Chelsea, which leaves them down in 13th place, 11 points off the pace at the top already. Europe has so far provided sweet relief for the Foxes, who have won their first two Champions League group stage games and will be looking to take a huge leap towards the knockout stages with a win at the King Power stadium. They defeated Club Brugge 3-0 in their first ever Champions League outing, and then beat Porto 1-0 thanks to a first half effort from Slimani last month.
Leicester must be on their guard against a Copenhagen side who consolidated their place at the top of the Danish top flight with a 2-0 win over Silkeborg at the weekend.
Ståle Solbakken’s side are second behind Leicester in Group G having picked up four points so far.— DailyMail
derick.khumalo