London: Leicester City have turned their debut season in the Champions League into a cakewalk and victory over FC Copenhagen on Wednesday would seal their place in the last 16.
A narrow win over Copenhagen a fortnight ago made Leicester one of only five group stage debutants to win their first three games and should they make it four from four and Porto fail to beat Club Brugge they will secure top spot in Group G.
That would, in likelihood, spare them a clash with one of the big guns in the first knockout round when the competition begins again in the new year.
How Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, England’s other three representatives, would like to be in that position with two group games to spare?
Yet Leicester’s European form has been in stark contrast to their domestic performances as they struggled to adjust to wearing the English champions’ crown.
In Berlin, Borussia Dortmund are looking to hold top spot in Group F with a win over Sporting Lisbon to put them in the knock-out stages. Dortmund will book a last 16 place with victory at their Signal Iduna Park against third-placed Sporting, who are four points behind both Borussia and second-placed Real Madrid.
Dortmund’s final group match at Real on December 7 is likely to settle who will win the group, but for now the focus is on Sporting. But Tuchel’s Dortmund have struggled of late.
They are winless in their last four Bundesliga match, dating back to late September, and were held to a goalless league draw at home by rivals Schalke on Saturday in the Ruhr derby.
Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham will be looking to end a five-game winless run when they entertain Leverkusen in a crucial contest at Wembley. Spurs have had four draws and one defeat in all competitions since beating Manchester City a month ago.
Serial Europa League winners Sevilla are level top of Group H alongside Juventus and tackle pointless Croatians Dinamo Zagreb, who lost 3-0 and 4-0 to Lyon and Juventus respectively before going down 1-0 at home to Sevilla two weeks ago. Sevilla have scored just two goals to get their seven points.
