Sports

April 12, 2017

We’ll beat Atletico — Drinkwater

We’ll beat Atletico  — Drinkwater

Leicester City’s Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi (C), Leicester City’s English-born Jamaican defender Wes Morgan (R) and Leicester City’s Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel (L) celebrate their victory at the final whistle during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg football match between Leicester City and Sevilla at the King Power Stadium on March 14, 2017. / AFP PHOTO

Danny Drinkwater believes Leicester City must head to the Vicente Calderon Stadium with only one target tonight – to beat Atlético Madrid.

Leicester City’s Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi (C), Leicester City’s English-born Jamaican defender Wes Morgan (R) and Leicester City’s Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel (L) celebrate their victory at the final whistle during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg football match between Leicester City and Sevilla at the King Power Stadium on March 14, 2017. / AFP PHOTO

Craig Shakespeare’s men take on an Atlético side that have lost just twice in their last 20 games in all competitions, with both of those defeats coming against Barcelona.

But the Foxes are also in form, with six-straight victories coming prior to Sunday’s Premier League loss at Everton, and for that reason, Drinkwater says his side will not fear facing the La Liga giants.

The midfielder said ahead of the game: “We’re looking to get through this round definitely. We’re not looking to draw the game or lose the game and hopefully nick something in the second leg.

“We’re going over to Madrid to get what we need out the game, and again, hopefully we can push for a place in the semi-finals.

“The Champions League is such a big stage. We have turned our form around in the league, so possibly the Sevilla game was a little turning point.

“It’s hard to break any team on form, but especially with the squad we’ve got here, we win one game and then we win two. It is hard to stop us.

It kind of just snowballs and then we keep pushing on. We don’t really look back from there.”

Drinkwater says City have learnt a great deal from competing in the Champions League and the central midfielder is looking forward to welcoming the Spanish outfit to Leicester City Stadium next week for the second leg.

He added: “It’s exciting and it’s different. First of all, you’re on the pitch playing against a team with a different style of football, different tactics, because of the different league.

“You try and learn as the game is going on and hopefully you get out of the game with what you need.

“We fancy ourselves against any team that come to our ground because we know what we can do as a team and how difficult we can make that game.”