The Stage Is Set For City's First-Ever European Semi-Final

Leicester City have experienced many special occasions over their 138-year existence – several over the past decade alone – but they have never hosted a European semi-final. Sixty-one years after the Club's continental debut, the wait is finally over.

2022-04-27T19:29:00.000Z

by Sam Stevens

Published

27 Apr, 2022

The Stage Is Set For City's First-Ever European Semi-Final

Leicester City have experienced many special occasions over their 138-year existence – several over the past decade alone – but they have never hosted a European semi-final. Sixty-one years after the Club's continental debut, the wait is finally over.

Sam Stevens

2022-04-27T19:29:00.000Z

The Stage Is Set For City's First-Ever European Semi-Final

Leicester City have experienced many special occasions over their 138-year existence – several over the past decade alone – but they have never hosted a European semi-final. Sixty-one years after the Club's continental debut, the wait is finally over.

Sam Stevens

2022-04-27T19:29:00.000Z

The Stage Is Set For City's First-Ever European Semi-Final

Leicester City have experienced many special occasions over their 138-year existence – several over the past decade alone – but they have never hosted a European semi-final. Sixty-one years after the Club's continental debut, the wait is finally over.

Sam Stevens

2022-04-27T19:29:00.000Z

The Stage Is Set For City's First-Ever European Semi-Final

Leicester City have experienced many special occasions over their 138-year existence – several over the past decade alone – but they have never hosted a European semi-final. Sixty-one years after the Club's continental debut, the wait is finally over.

Sam Stevens

2022-04-27T19:29:00.000Z

The opposition match the occasion – José Mourinho’s AS Roma – as the inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League campaign approaches its final chapter. A new competition on the European scene, the UECL has exceeded expectations and Marseille or Feyenoord await the winners in the showpiece.

Around the Club, excitement has been bubbling away for some time. Across the city, there's only one topic of discussion. Opportunities like this are rare and a strident home crowd is likely to greet both sets of players when they emerge from the tunnel on Thursday.

It has all the ingredients to rival some of the most famous nights Leicester City's home ground has ever staged. Naturally its status in Foxes folklore will depend on the result, not just on the night, but across the tie as a whole. Nevertheless, it's a head-to-head which has caught the imagination across the region.

On Wednesday, the mood was relaxed but focused at LCFC Training Ground, the Club's world-class headquarters in Seagrave. Overcast weather conditions greeted Italian journalists in north Leicestershire as they joined their English counterparts on the sidelines as City hosted an open training session.

Following a 15-minute window for the world's media to watch on, the real work began. Aside from long-term absentees Wilfred Ndidi and Ryan Bertrand, all the figures Foxes fans will have been hoping to see were there as Brendan Rodgers' men added the final touches to their tactical stratagem.

Elsewhere, spare seats were at a premium inside the media suite at the King Power Centre by the time full-back Ricardo Pereira took to the top table after lunch. The Portuguese's composed finish, with moments to spare, was the headline act of Leicester's 2-1 win at PSV Eindhoven in the quarter-finals.

"When you are so close to the final, you have to think about that next stage, but of course you have to do this job first," the former Porto star told the assembled media visitors. "We have good opponents on the other side, so we have to do well to win and to go through.

"We know they have good players, they have Tammy Abraham, they have [Nicolò] Zaniolo. The midfielders play well when they have the ball, it’s an aggressive team. We’ll have to be at our best to go through, but we’ll play in front of our fans and I’m sure it will be a nice atmosphere at the stadium.

"It will be the last game at our stadium, a European game at home. I’m sure they will be there from the first whistle, and they will help us for sure."

For all of Rodgers' many experiences in the game, this will also be the Northern Irishman's first taste of a semi-final in European football. The manager who inspired Leicester to FA Cup glory a year ago worked with his opposite number – Mourinho – at Chelsea at the turn of the millennium.

The pair have come up against each other on several occasions in the past, with plenty at stake, but never in the latter stages of a knockout competition. The 49-year-old is excited by the tactical challenge which Mourinho will pose on Filbert Way and did not hold back in his praise for the decorated Portuguese.

"For me, he is such a special manager, one of greats of our generation," the Foxes manager said. "When I was a young coach and I look back at all managers I worked with, probably none of them would say that they felt they were mentors to me.

"Certainly what I did was consciously I would assimilate as much of their great knowhow and work, and observe, and watch and learn and study. He had a special quality that I was able to see in my formative years as a young coach, that he could bring people along with him.

"I have nothing but admiration for him. I then grew and became a manager in my own right and then it becomes a little more distant because you are busy in work, but I’ll never forget what I gained from him as a young coach."

At around the same time, over in Rome, Mourinho and his players were boarding a flight bound for the East Midlands. After touching down, I Giallorossi headed straight to Filbert Way to complete their own media commitments and to familiarise themselves with their surroundings in Leicester.

Former Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham has been a sensation in Italy this season. Under Mourinho's guidance, the 24-year-old is playing the best football of his career, scoring 26 goals in 50 appearances in all competitions for club and country. Unsurprisingly, Roma's No.9 was selected for the press conference in Leicester.

"Playing against a team like Leicester, they’re a good team," Abraham told the mostly-Italian congregation at Leicester City Stadium. "I know what to expect. We’ve had lots of meetings, we’ve prepared for the game. Leicester have many good attacking players.

"I’m close mates with James Maddison so I know a few of the players, [Ademola] Lookman as well. It’s nice to come to England and play again against an English team. Hopefully I can be the one smiling on my way back to Rome."

Mourinho's linguistic skills were on show inside Filbert Way's media room, meanwhile, with the former Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur manager addressing a range of topics with Roman journalists.

Breaking into English on one occasion, the 59-year-old – the self-proclaimed 'special one' – said: "To be in the final, we have to beat a very good team, with a very good coach, with very good players. We have to play two matches at a very high level to achieve that dream."

Afterwards, alongside delegates from the Rome club, Mourinho laid a wreath at the recently-unveiled Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Statue at the home of Leicester City. A mark of respect from one of the world's most celebrated managers and one of Italy's greatest football clubs on the eve of battle.

Now, all that remains is the game itself. A second leg is still to come, at the magnificent Stadio Olimpico, but much of the plot could be scribed in Leicester this week. And Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, writing inside the next edition of CITY Matchday Magazine, has issued a rallying cry to the Blue Army.

"It needs to be as loud as it has ever been," he said. "I know our supporters will be up to the task."

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