‘A Challenging Final Game’ – Nugent & Taggart On Tackling Sevilla
- Sevilla are Leicester City’s last pre-season opponents
- The sides face off at King Power Stadium on Sunday
- Tickets for the 6pm kick-off remain available HERE
- Two ex-Foxes expressed their thoughts on LCFC TV
The six-time Europa League winners will provide the last marker of where Brendan Rodgers’ side are at ahead of the 2022/23 campaign, as they visit King Power Stadium on Sunday (6pm kick-off).
Speaking after City recorded two victories over Derby County and Preston North End in back-to-back friendlies last Saturday, former Foxes forward Nugent expressed his views on how the team’s pre-season schedule has put them in good shape for the Premier League commencing a week on Sunday, versus Brentford.
He commented on LCFC TV: “They move on now, it’s the last game against Sevilla on Sunday and they’ve got to look forward to that now after two victories on the bounce. Two separate teams played and all the lads are now firing and ready to go.
Highlights – Derby County 1 Leicester City 3
Extended highlights from Pride Park, with commentary from John Dunn and Matt Elliott, as Leicester City beat Derby County in pre-season.
“It’s 90 minutes for most of the lads and winning breeds confidence. Pre-season is about getting fit, but if you can get the results to go along with it, then it gives you confidence going into the season. Two different teams played in two different formations, but two victories.
“All three strikers scored goals, Harvey Barnes chipped in with a goal as well and young Callum Wright. As strikers, in pre-season you want to score as many goals as you can - long may it continue. It all looks good in getting ready for Sevilla.”
Ex-Leicester defender Taggart shared his predictions on the type of game that is likely to play out, which comes exactly a week prior to the top-flight campaign kicking off. Given the pedigree of Julen Lopetegui’s men, it’s the perfect encounter as they move towards competitive action, he says.
“Sevilla will come and try and play a similar style of football to Leicester,” Taggart expressed. “They’ll expect to control the game, they will be physical, they are a physical side, as well as being technically very good. It’ll be a tough game for Leicester.
“Again, possession-based and so it‘ll give Leicester another headache in terms of how they try and go about managing a game of football when they haven’t got it.
“They’ve had it for a long time throughout pre-season and now they are playing a friendly against a top-quality European side who will come to King Power Stadium and keep hold of the ball for long periods.
“There’s a lot of hard work that has to go on this week in the lead up to that game. That’s one of the reasons why, because they will have to try and counteract what Sevilla bring.
“If you look at the Spanish league in general, on the whole the majority of the teams tend to play the same way - all possession-based. Each individual player who comes to play will know exactly what their job and role is within the team.
Highlights – Preston North End 1 Leicester City 2
Niall McCaughan and Gerry Taggart bring you commentary of Leicester City's 2-1 friendly win over Preston North End at Deepdale.
“So, Leicester have to be up to speed on that, stop Sevilla playing and get in behind to cause them problems. It makes for a really interesting game.”
Nugent believes the manager will be pleased with what he has seen from his side over the course of pre-season and another positive result against the Spanish outfit would help to enter the new season with added momentum. There is also the carrot of fighting for a place in the starting XI.
“You build your way up and it’s a challenging last game of pre-season,” he explained. “It will be a lot tougher and it’ll be a massive step up from Preston to Sevilla, but they will all be fighting and ready to go.
“They are really competitive in the Spanish league. They’ve won the UEFA Cup and Europa League six times, which is a massive achievement. They always seem to do well in the competition.
“I think Leicester will be ready. They’ll have a good week’s training preparing for the game and I’m sure Brendan will get a squad up for the game and they’ll all want to be working hard in training to try and impress the manager and force their way into the team.
“You think whoever starts against Sevilla, that’ll be the team that starts the season. It’s up to them to keep the jersey and impress the manager. The players that play against Sevilla will want to play the full 90 minutes again. It’ll be intriguing and a good game to watch.”
Tickets for Sunday evening's fixture are available to purchase HERE.