Both teams are looking to get themselves into the quarter-final of the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League as Premier League champions, Leicester, make the trip to Seville. The struggling Premier League side will hope to put their awful league form behind them and get past Sevilla in the Champions League. The Spanish team will definitely fancy their place in the quarter-final as their opponents have shown none of their signs of their title-winning season last term, something that has seen many Foxes fans calling for Claudio Ranieri to get the sack.

STATS

• Sevilla’s last match in the Champions League ended 0-0 against Lyon, at which point they were already through to the knockout stage. They won 3 of their group games, drew 2 and lost 1, a very average record for a team who qualified 3 points clear of the 3rd-placed team. Their biggest win in the groups came at home to Dinamo Zagreb where the game ended 4-0 in their favour.
• Leicester City’s last game in the Champions League ended embarrassingly, a massive 5-0 loss away at Porto showed very clearly that a weakened side had been put out as they had already qualified for the knockout stages. Their work was done early as they won their group with a game to spare, after 4 wins and 1 draw.
• Wissam Ben Yedder has been Sevilla’s top goal scorer during this Champions League campaign with 2 goals. While this isn’t a great total, with his recent form, Leicester will have to be careful of his goal scoring threat.
• Leicester’s top scorer in the Champions League is Riyad Mahrez with 4 goals, his contribution was vital to Leicester topping their group in their first ever Champions League campaign.

HEAD TO HEAD

Due to Leicester’s lack of European experience, this will be the first meeting between the two sides. Leicester’s last competitive fixture against a Spanish side was in the UEFA Cup in 1997 where they lost 2-0 to Atletico Madrid.

SEVILLA NEWS

Sevilla will be looking to take their strong league form into Europe as they hope to book their place in the quarter-final. They’ll be helped by having an almost full squad to choose from. They only have 3 injured players: Michael Krohn-Dehli (knee), Benoit Tremoulinas (meniscus) and Nicolas Pareja (groin). This gives them a great chance to take a win into the second leg in Leicester.

Latest matches: Sevilla FC

18.02.2017	LaLi	Sevilla FC	SD Eibar	2:0	W
12.02.2017	LaLi	Las Palmas UD	Sevilla FC	0:1	W
05.02.2017	LaLi	Sevilla FC	Villarreal CF	0:0	D
29.01.2017	LaLi	Espanyol Barcelona	Sevilla FC	3:1	L
22.01.2017	LaLi	CA Osasuna	Sevilla FC	3:4	W

LEICESTER NEWS

Leicester’s performances in the Premier League have been absolutely abysmal since the start of 2017 where they are yet to win a game. Claudio Ranieri might choose to switch up his team slightly as he looks for a win. The only unavailability is record signing, Islam Slimani, who will miss the game with a groin injury, which is unlucky as he has shown real class in the competition this season.

Latest matches: Leicester City

18.02.2017	FA C	Millwall FC	Leicester City	1:0	L
12.02.2017	Prem	Swansea City	Leicester City	2:0	L
08.02.2017	FA C	Leicester City	Derby County	3:1	W
05.02.2017	Prem	Leicester City	Manchester United	0:3	L
31.01.2017	Prem	Burnley FC	Leicester City	1:0	L

SUMMING UP!

Leicester will be lucky to come away from Wednesday’s game with an away goal, which is what they really need to aim for. Sevilla just need to keep a clean sheet and make sure they score themselves. If Leicester can keep the deficit less than 3 goals, they might be able to get themselves in the quarter-finals. Sevilla are definitely favourites and shouldn’t have too many problems defeating the Prem chmpions.