Kasper Schmeichel confident Leicester's Champions League experience will provide Europa League boost
Three years after reaching the last eight of the Champions League, Kasper Schmeichel is targeting another memorable European journey with Leicester.
Schmeichel is taking inspiration from Leicester’s path to the quarter-finals in the 2016-17 season, when they performed brilliantly in their first ever experience of the competition.
Leicester are competing in the Europa League this season and face AEK Athens on Thursday night aiming to secure a second successive victory in Group G.
Schmeichel insists those Champions League nights under first Claudio Ranieri and then Craig Shakespeare can be used as an incentive for Leicester to extend their European campaign into the knockout stages.
“When you have experiences like that they are amazing but the flip side is you want more,” said the Danish goalkeeper.
“It's been a long road back to European football and we were hoping for the Champions League but you don't always get what you want. We're here in another amazing competition.
“I think the squad we have now is a top-class Premier League squad. What we achieved was very unique [winning the title under Claudio Ranieri] and is always going to be hard to replicate but you learn to believe and think 'you never know'.
“It's been a while since our last European excursion and we’ve definitely missed it. These are the nights we have been working towards.”
Leicester comprehensively defeated Ukrainian outfit Zorya Luhansk in their first group game and are favourites to win in the Greek capital.
Brendan Rodgers, the Leicester manager, returns to Athens for the first time since his Celtic team were knocked out by the same club in the Champions League in August 2018, but insists this will be a different experience with no fans present.
“The last time I was here it was a fantastic atmosphere and we were unfortunate to lose out in qualification,” he said.
“We are just disappointed [there are no fans at the game], I spoke to the players before about the atmosphere when I was here last.
“It's a shame they can't sample that but we're here to do a job and that's to win the game.”
Rodgers has revealed Jamie Vardy could start the game after missing the tie against Zorya with a calf strain.
Vardy came off the bench against Arsenal on Sunday to score a late winner in the Premier League, and has travelled with the squad to Greece.
Rodgers said: “He's available, the plan was to play him in the last 30 minutes of the game. The dynamic changes when he's on the field, he’s such a world-class striker. He is ready to play if selected.
“There's such a long way to go. Each team has only just played their first game. It's a tough group and I'm pretty sure it'll go to the last game. We have respect for every team, in European football any game is never easy and you have to fight for the result.”
