Leicester: Claudio Ranieri said he was proud of his players after they maintained their immaculate record in the Champions League, but the Leicester City manager demanded that they change their mentality in the Premier League to turn around their poor domestic form.
Riyad Mahrez’s first-half goal secured Leicester a 1-0 win against FC Copenhagen to give them maximum points after three matches and move within touching distance of a place in the knockout stage. They are five points clear of second place and another victory in Copenhagen in a fortnight’s time would be enough to qualify for the last 16 with two matches to spare.
It is a different story in the Premier League, where Leicester have lost four of their opening eight fixtures and conceded 14 goals in the process, leaving them 13th in the table and prompting questions about where it has gone wrong for the English champions.
They play Crystal Palace at home on Saturday and Ranieri wants his players to alter their psychological approach to domestic matches.
“From one side I’m very proud,” said the manager as he reflected on a third successive Champions League win without conceding a goal. “From the other side, when I think of the Premier League, I’m very, very angry. But it’s OK because in my career this has happened. When for the first time you play in a big competition, you lose something when you go back in your league. This is normal but we want to change this way. It’s just psychological. When you are playing in the Champions League your mind is more concentrated, you are more focused on the match. But we cannot continue in this way. Our goal is to change our concentration in the Premier League.”
Mahrez has been directly involved in four of Leicester’s five goals in the Champions League, scoring three and assisting one. It was a brilliant flicked volley from the Algerian, four minutes before half-time, that inflicted Copenhagen’s first defeat in 24 matches — a sequence that stretched back to 22 May.
Leicester, however, were indebted to Kasper Schmeichel for pulling off a superb save in the 90th minute to deny Andreas Cornelius, the former Cardiff City striker, a late equaliser. Schmeichel dived low to his right to make a breathtaking stop.
“Thank you to Kasper, thank you to all my players,” Ranieri said. “It was a very tough match. Copenhagen is a very solid team, strong tall and very dangerous in the air. It was a good performance, totally different from the Premier League. We are now in a good position, our destiny is in our hands and we want to continue in this way.”
Ranieri smiled when it was put to him that Leicester have now collected more points in the Champions League than the Premier League. “It’s unbelievable. It’s Leicester,” he said, before reiterating the need to get their act together on Saturday. “We have to stay calm now and we have to change our mentality in the Premier League, because Crystal Palace is another tough match.”
— Guardian News & Media Ltd, 2016
