Leicester City will continue to prepare for the upcoming Championship season on Wednesday, when they take on sister club Leuven at their Seagrave training ground.
The Belgian outfit travel to Seagrave for a three-day training camp as they also continue to build up to their own return to action in their domestic top flight.
Match preview
© Reuters
Wednesday will act as another step towards the forthcoming Championship season for Leicester City, who are still new to life under Enzo Maresca following last season's relegation from the Premier League.
Just seven seasons after their historic title win in England's top flight, the Foxes, beginning the campaign under Brendan Rodgers and playing out the final months under Dean Smith's temporary stewardship, were unable to steer clear of the drop, eventually finishing 18th on 34 points from their 38 outings.
The fight for survival went down to the final day, and they did their job with a 2-1 victory over West Ham United at the King Power Stadium, thanks to goals from Harvey Barnes and Wout Faes, but a win for Everton on the same day meant the Foxes were condemned to relegation, with Enzo Maresca stepping up in the summer to lead their push for promotion.
Their preparations began with a behind-closed-doors friendly against Peterborough United, which ended in a 2-1 defeat following 11 half-time changes, before Maresca's men met Northampton Town at Sixfields on Saturday and came out on top, as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall headed in the only goal of the game, during which 22 Leicester players were again given the chance to get minutes in the tank.
They will now hope to ramp up the preparations further on Wednesday before meeting Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool in Asia in their final two friendlies before the start of the Championship season in early August.
© Reuters
Their visitors are also seeking to build confidence ahead of their domestic campaign in a pre-season trip to Leicester.
Leuven enjoyed a positive season last time around, improving on the previous two years as they finished 10th in the Belgian First Division A with 48 points from their 34 matches.
After that ended in consecutive victories over Mechelen, Oostende and Standard Liege, Marc Brys's side returned for pre-season in mid-June and have enjoyed a fine run of results, kicking off their preparations with 9-0, 3-0 and 4-0 beatings of Bertem-Leefdaal, Racing Mechelen and Tienen.
They then hosted Beerschot and won 1-0, before most recently thrashing SK Beveren 5-1 on Wednesday, and Brys's side now travel to England to meet their sister club with the aim of continuing to build momentum with what would be their most impressive win of pre-season thus far, prior to meeting Standard Liege and Bocholt in their final two friendlies before the league campaign begins away at Charleroi next Saturday.
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Enzo Maresca should again rotate his squad throughout Wednesday's friendly, affording game time to his entire squad, including summer signings Conor Coady, Callum Doyle and Harry Winks, following their arrivals from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.
Coady and Doyle could again start in a back three alongside Wout Faes, leaving Harry Souttar and Jannik Vestergaard to come in for the second half, while Winks will likely reform a midfield partnership with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, with other options including the likes of Wilfred Ndidi, Dennis Praet and Hamza Choudhury.
Jamie Vardy, Patson Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho are all bound to be given time to lead the line as they fight for Maresca's favour ahead of the new league campaign, with winger Harvey Barnes having missed the Northampton clash amid ongoing speculation of an exit after key creative midfielder James Maddison departed for Tottenham Hotspur at the end of June.
Leuven attacker Nathan Opoku should start in Wednesday's friendly and will hope to impress against his parent club, having joined on loan from the Foxes in January until the end of the 2023-24 season.
They will likely turn to him for goals this coming term, after Mario Gonzalez, who topped their scoring charts with 15 goals last time around, saw his loan spell from Braga come to an end.
Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson is another threat, having found the net 14 times last term, while, at the other end of the pitch, Federico Ricca and Ewoud Pletinckx are key men and mainstays at the heart of the defence.
Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Iversen; Doyle, Coady, Faes; Pereira, Dewsbury-Hall, Winks, Choudhury, Castagne; Vardy, Daka
Leuven possible starting lineup:
Cojocaru; Dom, Ricca, Pletinckx, Sadzoute; Keita, De Norre, Banzuzi; Thorsteinsson, Opoku, Nsingi
We say: Leicester City 3-0 Leuven
With a squad full of quality all keen to impress their new manager, we see Leicester outclassing their sister club at Seagrave on Wednesday and coming away with a comfortable victory.
No Data Analysis info
Sam Varley
