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'Braga Will Be At Full Strength'

Leicester City are set to face a stronger SC Braga side than the one they convincingly beat at Leicester City Stadium, according to Portugese Football Journalist, Tom Kundert.

2020-11-26T11:19:00.000Z

by Sam Jones

Published

26 Nov, 2020

'Braga Will Be At Full Strength'

Leicester City are set to face a stronger SC Braga side than the one they convincingly beat at Leicester City Stadium, according to Portugese Football Journalist, Tom Kundert.

Sam Jones

2020-11-26T11:19:00.000Z

'Braga Will Be At Full Strength'

Leicester City are set to face a stronger SC Braga side than the one they convincingly beat at Leicester City Stadium, according to Portugese Football Journalist, Tom Kundert.

Sam Jones

2020-11-26T11:19:00.000Z

'Braga Will Be At Full Strength'

Leicester City are set to face a stronger SC Braga side than the one they convincingly beat at Leicester City Stadium, according to Portugese Football Journalist, Tom Kundert.

Sam Jones

2020-11-26T11:19:00.000Z

'Braga Will Be At Full Strength'

Leicester City are set to face a stronger SC Braga side than the one they convincingly beat at Leicester City Stadium, according to Portugese Football Journalist, Tom Kundert.

Sam Jones

2020-11-26T11:19:00.000Z

- Leicester City travel to SC Braga's Estádio Municipal de Braga on Thursday evening (5:55pm kick-off)- The Foxes are looking for back-to-back UEFA Europa League group stage victories over the hosts- Tom Kundert of PortuGOAL.net spoke to LCFC.com ahead of the matchday four fixture in Portugal- He believes Leicester will face a different challenge to the one at Leicester City Stadium last time out

The two sides meet once more on Thursday evening (5:55pm kick-off) at the impressive Estádio Municipal de Braga, with the potential for the hosts to move back on level terms with City at the top of the Group G table.

Reflecting on the previous fixture, which the Foxes won 4-0 to maintain their 100 per cent group record of three wins out of three, Kundert believes Os Arcebispos did not show their true colours on a disappointing night for Carlos Carvalhal's side.

"It was very much a let down," the Portugese Football Journalist admitted when speaking to LCFC.com earlier this week. "Everyone in Braga felt they really didn't do themselves justice.

"Carlos Carvalhal is a really jovial manager who always seems to be good humoured no matter what the results are, but he was pretty angry at the end of that game. He'd gone back to England and was obviously hoping to leave a better impression, Braga just didn't turn up and Leicester were far the better team.

"I think Braga are realistic and Leicester are a very good team on paper, in 10 games against Braga, they should probably win about seven of them, but Braga could have definitely put up a better fight.

"Carvalhal was very critical at the end, especially about the way that Braga defended, I think he called some of the goals 'Walt Disney goals', comical defending."

After fielding a weakened squad in Leicester last time out, due to an important upcoming league fixture, Kundert anticipates that Braga's full strength side could cause the Foxes problems.

He continued: "There was a little bit of rotation and I think the players Carvalhal took out really did weaken the team, probably more than he would have expected.

"Especially Ricardo Horta, he didn't play and he really is a key component of their attack so they just couldn't get anything going, going forward, but having said that, until the first goal, you didn't really get the impression that they were going to get a bit of a thumping.

"But it just seemed to all fall apart quite fast after Leicester scored their first goal. There's no doubt about it, they'll be looking to set the record straight and put in a better performance.

"The Benfica match is basically Braga's biggest game of the season and the Leicester game was just two or three days before, which is why they did rotate. This time around, of course, there is no way they are going to rotate, they are going to go all out, they are going to put out their best team.

"Unfortunately, one of Braga's better younger players has got a bad injury, Francisco Moura. He plays as a left winger or left-back, he looks a really good prospect but he has unfortunately had an ACL so is out for most of the season. But apart from that, Braga will be at full strength.

"Brendan Rodgers was quite intelligent in the way he rotated the squad, because they are doing so well so the players who don't normally play, they come in and are wanting to show the manager that they are good enough for a place.

"There was no doubting their motivation, they were really up for it and both teams had two out of two wins and you maybe thought they will take it easy on each other, but Leicester were very impressive.

"For Braga, hopefully that was just a very bad day at the office, a bit of a one off and they can do better here."

Braga's impressive league results continued following their defeat to Leicester, beating Benfica 3-2 in a top of the table clash. Now they have to convert that Primeira Liga form into Europe, to reignite their qualification hopes, according to Kundert.

"They started the season quite poorly with two straight defeats, but since then, they've played nine games and won eight of them - the only defeat was that one at Leicester," he said of their recent run.

"They're a good squad, a good team. You might not have thought it from that performance but they are joint second this season and they have a good chance of being in the title fight. In Portugal, that is quite an achievement because the top three, in terms of financial ability, are so far ahead of everyone else.

"Braga have got themselves in there and they have a very capable manager, so I certainly expect them to do much better in this second game. Especially now it's going to be interesting because Leicester, from a psychological point of view, are basically through, you would have thought, with three wins out of three.

"There would need to be some kind of catastrophe for them not to win the group, so will they just take their foot off the pedal a little bit?

"Braga will be certainly hoping so, but it's the opposite now for Braga, if they lose this game as well, suddenly they have got a fight on their hands to qualify. Braga will be all out for this match."

All times GMT.

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