LEICESTER CITY

League position: 11th
Head coach: Brendan Rodgers
UECL top scorer: James Maddison (three)

RECENT FORM

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

Roma rested a number of players in the goalless draw with Bologna at the weekend as Jose Mourinho balances his squad during a critical final few weeks of the campaign and Henrikh Mkhitaryan the sole injury doubt for the hosts.

The Giallorossi are fifth with three games to play in the Serie A season - with a crunch game against seventh-placed Fiorentina coming up - but their focus now switches to the prospect of reaching a European final in front of what will be a raucous Olimpico.

Leicester are now five games without a win after being comfortably beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday - a game that saw Rodgers make eight changes from the team that held Roma in the first leg.

Maddison and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall were rested entirely from the trip to Spurs to overcome minor injury issues but both should be fit enough to start in the Italian capital.

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; Lookman, Vardy, Barnes

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Jamie Vardy

Having hit double figures in seven successive Premier League campaigns, you don’t have to be Agatha Christie to realise that Vardy is the Foxes’ most threatening player in front of goal.

He has, however, gone four games without a goal and hasn’t scored since 1 March as the England international has battled injury.

But, with crucial minutes under his belt - and having emerged unscathed from outings in each of Leicester’s previous three matches - Vardy should be much sharper.

Maddison is the side’s creator-in-chief and Vardy their goal-getter - if both click then Roma’s defence will need to be on their toes.

MATCH STATS

The Giallorossi are the competition’s second highest scorers with 26 goals in 11 matches, just two behind Feyenoord (28) in first place.

You have to go back to the 2018-19 season to find Roma’s last defeat in Europe on home soil - a 2-0 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League on 27 November 2018 - and their current continental unbeaten run stands at 17 matches (W11, D6).

Having also faced Napoli in the group stages of the Europa League, Leicester have faced Italian opposition three times this season without picking up a victory (D2, L1) and they were beaten 3-2 when they made the trip to Naples in December.

Leicester have never previously reached the last-four of a UEFA competition, while Roma have contested semi finals in the Cup Winners’ Cup (1969-70), Europa League (1920-21) and Champions League (2017-18). They also reached the 1990-91 UEFA Cup final.

PLAYER STATS

• Rodgers was appointed as an academy coach at Chelsea by Mourinho in 2004 and he worked under the Roma boss for three years in London.
  
• Roger Ibanez’s 20 UECL tackles this season are behind only Sondre Tronstad (21) in the competition’s list of most successful challenges in 2021-22.
  
• Tammy Abraham (eight goals) also ranks second in the scoring charts, with just Feyenoord striker Cyriel Dessers (10) ahead of the Englishman.
  
• Nicola Zalewski’s first leg assist for Lorenzo Pellegrini’s opener was his second UECL provision this term and second in succession after he also teed up Nicolo Zaniolo in the 4-0 second leg win over Bodo/Glimt in the previous round.

WHAT THEY SAID

“We lost today, the goal came late, so we won’t dwell on it. We need to get back now, we have a big game on Thursday.

“We have a good squad, we can change things around. Hopefully, it will work quite well for us. They have a strong team, but we’re looking to get to the final.”

- Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho previewing the second leg after scoring in his team’s 3-1 loss to Spurs