Claudio Ranieri: Champions League brings Mahrez to life

Claudio Ranieri joked that the Champions League music must have woken up Riyad Mahrez, after the Algerian scored twice to inspire Leicester City to an emphatic victory in their first game in the competition. Marc Albrighton also got a goal on a perfect night for the Premier League champions as they ran out 3-0 winners against a poor Club Brugge side.

“I said from the beginning the Champions League will be an experience for us – we hope to get through and play again,” Ranieri said. “But if not, we want to get in the Europa League – that’s the target. We’ve just played the first match; there’s another five to go. We have taken confidence. But let’s stay calm. It wasn’t easy. If they’d scored early it would have changed the match.”

Mahrez's first was a superb free-kick and he converted the second from the penalty spot, with both goals coming after Jamie Vardy was brought down. With Mahrez below his best in the opening four Premier League matches and his displays starting to come in for some criticism, Ranieri suggested that the PFA player of the year had responded to the sound of the anthem before kick-off.

“Maybe the music woke up him!” the Leicester manager said. “Maybe he’s tired of dilly-ding, dilly dong and the Champions League music woke him. I liked his [PERFORMANCE], he worked very hard.”

Mahrez had missed three of his previous four penalties, and Ranieri said afterwards that he had wanted Islam Slimani, the club-record signing who made his Leicester debut, to take the spot-kick against Brugge. But Mahrez stepped forward. “If he hadn’t scored I’d take his neck and crush his neck!” Ranieri said. “He took the responsibility. I tried to say Slimani because he’s a penalty scorer. But he took the responsibility and scored. He was a lucky man!”

(Guardian service)