Match Preview: Mansfield Town vs. Leicester City

Leicester City continue their pre-season schedule with a trip to Mansfield Town’s One Call Stadium, giving the squad the chance to get some more minutes under their belt ahead of the 2015/16 season. 

City recovered from a goal down to beat Lincoln City last time out, with strikes from Riyad Mahrez, Andrej Kramarić and Jamie Vardy sealing a 3-1 victory on Tuesday. 

It gave manager Claudio Ranieri a first look at his new side, with 22 players each getting 45 minutes in preparation for the upcoming campaign. 

After a run-out for the majority of the first team squad earlier this week, Saturday’s fixture against Mansfield will give the Ranieri another chance to assess the current fitness of the City squad. 

Mansfield Town have enjoyed a busy pre-season schedule as they continue preparations for their 2015/16 campaign in League 2. 

The Stags managed to secure their status in England’s Football League with the help of Leicester City Development Squad defender Callum Elder, who played 21 times for them last season. 

Mansfield, who finished the 2014/15 campaign seven points above the drop-zone, last faced Leicester in the FA Cup in 2002 – a game that the Foxes went on to win 2-1 thanks to a double from James Scowcroft. 

Speaking to Foxes Player HD after the win over Lincoln City, manager Claudio Ranieri said: “The performance was good, first of all because nobody is injured and that’s important for me and secondly because we won the match. 

“The first 20 minutes were very, very hard because Lincoln have already played three matches in pre-season but for us it was a first 45 minutes. 

“But after 20 or 25 minutes I saw the players move better, play on the floor and we scored a great goal. The second half was much better, faster and the strikers moved very well. 

“I think we created a lot of opportunities but it’s important when you create these opportunities to stay calm in the last 20 metres because we lost the last pass sometimes when there was another team-mate in a good position to score a goal.” 

TICKETS 

Away tickets for the pre-season friendly at Mansfield Town are sold out, with no tickets available on the day.