We have all the pre-match preamble you need as Roma travel to England to take on Leicester City in the Europa Conference League semi-finals.

Thursday's first leg at the King Power Stadium gets underway at 21:00 CEST (20:00 local time).

The second leg takes place at the Stadio Olimpico exactly a week later.

LEICESTER CITY

League position: 10th
Head coach: Brendan Rodgers
UECL top scorer: James Maddison (three)

RECENT FORM

LEICESTER: W W L D D
ROMA: L W W D L

The Foxes have been inconsistent on the domestic front this term and are clinging on to a top-half place in the Premier League, rather than challenging for a European place as they would have hoped.

Three games without a league win (D2, L1) back that up, but Rodgers - who was appointed as an academy coach at Chelsea during Jose Mourinho’s second tenure with the Londoners - will be pleased to have seen talisman Jamie Vardy return from injury with a late cameo last time out.

As for the Giallorossi, their 12-game unbeaten run in Serie A came to an end as they lost at title chasing Inter Milan on Saturday, but that was just their second defeat in 14 in all competitions (W7, D5, L2).

They’ve scored in each of those games during that 14-game run and Mourinho has a full squad at his disposal as the Portuguese tactician sets about putting one leg in the final.

Route to this stage..

Leicester started the season in the Europa League, dropping into the Europa Conference League after coming third in a group that featured Napoli (one draw and one defeat against them), Lokomotiv Moscow and Legia Sofia.

They then beat Randers (7-2 on agg.), Rennes (3-2) and PSV Eindhoven (2-1, both goals coming late in the second leg) to reach the final four.

Roma, meanwhile, topped a Conference League group that featured Bodo/Glimt, CSKA Sofia and Zorya Luhansk.

In the knockout rounds, after being seeded through the initial knockout round they have subsequently beaten Vitesse Arnhem (2-1) and Bodo/Glimt (5-2) to reach this stage.

Possible Leicester line-up

(4-3-3)

Schmeichel; Pereira, Fofana, Evans, Castagne; Maddison, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall; Barnes, Vardy, Albrighton

DANGER MAN
James Maddison

Vardy being back fit is a major boost for Rodgers’ side and the England international will be pushing for a start ahead of Patson Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho in attack.

With just three appearances in Leicester’s last 11 top flight matches and having missed the entirety of their six-match stint in the UECL, Vardy is short on match fitness.

That means, as has been the case in the 35-year-old’s absence, others will need to both help Vardy shine and shine themselves.

Maddison is one of those Leicester players who will be required to pick up any slack and the 25-year-old creator has three goals in six Europa Conference League outings thus far.

MATCH STATS

With no prior history between these two sides, this will be the first match between Leicester and Roma in history and the East Midlands hosts have never beaten Italian opponents in Europe (D1, L1).

Roma may have been defeated on their most recent UECL travels, but the Giallorossi haven’t lost successive European away fixtures since 2018-19.

A major reason for that has been the fact that Roma have scored in each of their last 20 away games in UEFA competitions.

In total, Roma have scored 25 goals in the Europa Conference League, with 23 of those coming from inside the penalty area, 13 in the first half and five from corners - all of which rank the highest respectively in the competition’s charts this season.

PLAYER STATS

• Maddison is Leicester's 2021-22 top scorer in all competitions with 14 goals.
  
• Nicolo Zaniolo has been involved in eight UECL goals this term (four goals, four assists) and he scored a hat-trick last time out in Europe as Roma emphatically saw off Bodo/Glimt 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico.
  
• Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored one and set up another on his first ever meeting with Leicester at the King Power Stadium as he helped Mourinho’s Manchester United to a 3-0 win on 5 February 2017.
  
• No player has scored more UECL goals than Tammy Abraham (eight) so far and the Englishman averages a goal every 81.5 minutes in the competition.

WHAT THEY SAID

“If we finish top 10 and get to a final of a European competition, it would be one of my best seasons as a manager.”

- Leicester coach Brendan Rodgers on what will mark a successful season