With captain and main centre-back Morgan injured, Pearson's immediate priority is to choose a replacement.

And Hut, whose performance is getting better, basically locks in a starting position.

That said, Vasilevski, Moore, Upson, and Harry Maguire, who just arrived on loan in the winter window, will compete for another starting centre-back spot.

In the order of the central defenders in the team, former Poland international Vasilewski is Morgan's first substitute.

However, Vasilevsky's reaction and speed were too slow.

If he is allowed to partner with Huter in the central defender, when he encounters a speedy striker, it will basically be the end of the explosion.

Therefore, Pearson immediately ruled out the old central defender, who has no advantages other than experience.

And Upson is in the same situation as him, basically at the end of his career, his physical function has declined so much that he is not enough to cope with high-intensity games.

So the two are not considered.

And Moore, who has the best physical fitness among all the central defenders, is a new defensive star that the team focuses on cultivating.

During his Championship years, his defensive prowess was not too much to be tested due to the attacking firepower up front, which was rarely a threat to the backline.

However, when he reached the Premier League, which was at a higher level, faster pace and more demanding of players to maintain concentration in high-intensity games, his physical advantage was instantly gone.

At the same time, the shortcomings such as poor defensive positioning, recklessness, and easy distraction were also exposed in a game!

After a wave of elimination, the Blue Foxes coaching staff led by Pearson was surprised to find that the best candidate to replace Morgan was Maguire, who had just been loaned out in the winter window!

Compared to other centre-backs, Harry Maguire is the youngest.

He is tall and not slow to react.

Although the experience is not as good as the others, the turning speed is also slow.

But whether it is defensive awareness or frontal air defense ability, it is not bad at all.

And he has another quality that no other centre-back has missed.

That is, to have a certain ability to play the ball!

When pressed up front, Maguire can use his good footwork among centre-backs to get the ball out.

So, in the team training, Maguire wore the orange vest that represents the main force for the first time and formed a central defender partner with Huter.

The more experienced Hutter was a little behind, while Maguire was in charge of interception.

And although the two are only partnering for the first time, their performance is not bad.

This also made Pearson very happy.

It was thought that the loan of Maguire was just adding more depth to the centre-back position.

But he didn't think about it, his strength is not bad, even stronger than other central defenders!

On the other hand, Maguire did not expect that he would be trusted by the manager in the hands of the team's main central defender.

Therefore, he showed more effort and focus in training, and even after the team's training session, he took the initiative to ask Ling Feng to practice with him.

In this regard, Ling Feng naturally did not refuse.

In his opinion, Harry Maguire is the most promising centre-back in this Leicester City squad.

You know, Maguire is a star who can play the main role in the Premier League giants and the Three Lions in the future, and set a record for the transfer fee of defenders!

Judging by the overall review of the game, he has at least the potential of 85 overall reviews!

Ling Feng was even thinking that if the team could bring Maguire in next season, the team's lineup would only be stronger if they could train in advance.

Then, the possibility of competing for the Premier League title will be even greater!

。。。

The next day, in order to watch the draw ceremony for the round of 16 of the Europa League, Ling Feng called his teammates to his home.

Everyone sat around on the sofa and carpet in the living room, staring at the 60-inch LCD TV.

On TV, the draw was broadcast live at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland.

With the appearance of Inter Milan star Materazzi, the lottery guest in suits and leather shoes, the draw ceremony officially began.

This season, in the Europa League, Serie A can be described as very competitive.

There are five teams to reach the last 16 of the Europa League!

They are Inter Milan, Napoli, Roma, Fiorentina and Torino.

This is also the season in which the most Serie A teams have reached the round of 16 since the Europa League was restructured!

In recent years, with the slow decline of Serie A, Italian football has become less and less satisfactory on the European stage, and in previous seasons, Milan had won the Champions League, but the Europa League was never a blessed place for Italians.

Serie A has continued to weaken in the Champions League in recent years, and the Europa League points have begun to level with the Champions League, so the Europa League has gradually become the main battlefield of Serie A.

Last year, Juventus, Napoli and Fiorentina reached the final quarterfinals, earning a lot of European points for Serie A.

In addition to Serie A, the teams that have advanced to La Liga are defending champions Sevilla and the "yellow submarine" Villarreal.

Of the four Premier League teams competing in the Europa League, Liverpool and Tottenham were eliminated, with only Leicester City and Everton progressing.

The Bundesliga also has a lone seed from Wolfsburg.

It is worth mentioning that among the five major European leagues, Ligue 1 is the most uncompetitive.

Guingamp, the only team to reach the knockout round of the Europa League, was also killed by Dynamo Kyiv.

The teams outside the five major leagues are Besiktas in the Turkish Super League, Dynamo Kyiv and Dnipro in the Ukrainian Super League, Zenit St. Petersburg and Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Super League, and Club Brugge in the Belgian Super League.

Many media people believe that this year's championship is likely to be won by the Serie A team.

Soon, the TV first edited the brief matches of all the advancing teams, and then officially entered the draw.

Everyone in the living room also began to talk about it:

"Among these teams, the most rookie should be Dnipro."

"If we can draw it, we'll definitely be able to advance to the next round."

"I think so too."

"On the contrary, I think it is more interesting to smoke Chinese rice or Napoli, and we will have a chance to play against these strong teams!"

"Meazza and Maradona, when will we have the opportunity to play in these great stadiums"

In Ling Feng's view, among all the teams, there are four teams with the strongest overall lineup and strength, namely Inter Milan, Napoli, Wolfsburg, and Sevilla!

Ling Feng felt that if he wanted to go further in the Europa League, it was best to avoid these four teams.

Because there is no longer the principle of avoiding the same league, there is a possibility that there will be a civil war between the teams in the same league in the results of this draw.

The team that is drawn first will play the first leg of this knockout round at home.

The first to be drawn was La Liga powerhouse Villarreal.

And its opponent is the defending champion Sevilla!

What is full of drama is that just the first wave of draws, there was a La Liga civil war!

Compared to the surprise of the other teammates, Ling Feng didn't even jump his eyelids.

The lottery was never a simple draw.

UEFA manipulated the "secret" of the draw for the sake of the show, and it was not a day or two.

He feels that Leicester's outstanding performances in the Premier League and Europa League this season have given UEFA a glimpse of the possibility of hype.

Then I specially arranged a strong opponent for them who was very topical.

However, Ling Feng is confident that no matter which team is drawn, their Leicester City team will have the power to fight!

As time went on, the results of the draw were revealed:

Zenit drew to Turin

Napoli drew to Dynamo Moscow.

Florence drew to Rome.

In the eyes of everyone's expectation, the lottery guests finally drew Leicester City.

And their opponents are:

"Leicester's opponents will be."

"Wolfsburg!"

The on-site footage was immediately given to the club executives who came to participate in the draw from the two teams.

The Wolfsburg hierarchy smiled, while Leicester's hierarchy frowned.

The result of this lottery is not good.

This season, Wolfsburg has made a strong resurgence under the leadership of strong players such as Delaubnay, Dost, Gustavo and other strong players, and has set off a shocking wave of attacks in the Bundesliga.

Wolfsburg, backed by the Volkswagen Group, ambitiously challenged the salad plate in the hands of Bayern!

At the moment, Wolfsburg is only behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga standings, in second place, 10 points ahead of Borussia Mönchengdo in third place!

And the core player of this Wolfsburg team is, of course, the future world's No. 1 attacking midfielder - "Tintin" Kevin De Bruyne!!

In the winter window last year, just as Ling Feng was born in the Championship, De Bruyne was also sold by Chelsea to Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, starting his supergod journey.

De Bruyne, who had already spent a season in Bremen, was seamlessly connected and quickly adapted to the rhythm of the Bundesliga's wide open game.

And the head-to-head match with Bayern at the end of January can be called the famous battle of his career.

In the middle of the game, the core of the Belgian national team's midfield, who played the ball face, overturned the Bundesliga giant with two goals and an assist!

In addition to De Bruyne, Wolfsburg has a number of powerful stars and famous players in the team.

Dost, who scored in consecutive games, Croatian international "Sabre" Perisic, Swiss international Benaglio, Brazilian international Gustavo and Naldo, and defender Ronaldo with a knife.

This Wolfsburg team, the lineup is even stronger than the Wolfsburg team that won the Bundesliga championship for the first time in the 08~09 season!

It was called the strongest Wolf Castle in the past two decades by later fans!

It is worth mentioning that in the Wolfsburg team, there is also a Chinese player Zhang Xizhe.

However, the Chinese player has not even been able to make the squad for the game since he joined Wolfsburg for a few months.

Later, it was nicknamed "sales midfielder" by fans

It means that he was signed by the Volkswagen Group in order to sell cars in China.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with Ling Feng, who has regained his life.

What he cares more about is that he, the "Debrau", has the opportunity to meet the main owner so soon!

You must know that at the beginning of his debut, it was because of his passing attributes and [God's Vision] talent that he was able to kill indiscriminately in the Championship and quickly became the absolute core of Leicester City!

To this day, De Bruyne's talent and passing ability are still the core weapons he relies on the most on the field!

However, Mr. Ding has not yet reached the peak of his career, but he has also shown the strength and potential of a top star.

When you have the peak of De Bruyne's passing ability, and you meet De Bruyne, who is still on the rise, what interesting things will happen?

Ling Feng suddenly looked forward to this fight

。。。

After UEFA's "draw", there were several topical matchups in the Europa League round of 16.

"La Liga Civil War" Villarreal VS Sevilla!

"Serie A Civil War" Fiorentina VS Roma!

"Dark Horse Showdown" Leicester City VS Wolfsburg!

The first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals will take place in mid-March.

Until then, Leicester will have to focus on the league first.

As Chelsea are playing in the final of the League Cup.

As a result, the 27th round of fixtures against Chelsea have been rescheduled, and Leicester City have their first league game of March after a few precious days of recuperation.

They're back in Manchester, to the heart of the Blue Moon, the Etihad Stadium!

Due to the defeat to Liverpool at Anfield last time out, Manchester City are still seven points behind the leaders Chelsea with one more round of games!

Therefore, Manchester City returned to home this time, and Pellegrini chose to put the player who did not perform well in the last game on the bench.

In the starting eleven lineup, five positions have been adjusted.

This also includes Vincent Kompany, the team's captain and main centre-back!

Leicester City's captain Morgan is out injured.

Therefore, there is a very interesting phenomenon in this game:

The captains and main central defenders of both sides did not make their debut!

For Manchester City, Yaya Toure became captain on the field;

As for Leicester City, the captain's armband was worn on the arm of Andy King, the "hero of the three dynasties" who started this game.

Having suffered a defeat on the road, and against Manchester City, who were in desperate need of a win to pursue Chelsea, Pearson chose to avoid it.

Anyway, they don't compete for the title, so there is no need to fight Manchester City to the death.

So, he rotated:

Ling Feng, the core of the team, still made his debut, but the one at the top became Chris Wood.

On either side of the separation are Albrighton and Konoket.

In midfield, Marty James and Andy King both got starts.

Young centre-back Harry Maguire, who is on loan from Hull City, and Australian goalkeeper Schwarzer, who is on a free transfer from Chelsea, made their league debuts.

With such a large rotation range, a discerning person can see that Leicester City has basically given up strategically.

And the situation on the field is also as important as the two sides.

Manchester City had a number of chances in the first half and repeatedly threatened Leicester's goal.

However, they were all resolved one by one by the brave Schwarzer.

It wasn't until the 68th minute of the second half that David Silva knocked on the door of Leicester City with a push in front of goal.

And this goal was also the only goal of the game.

After Etihad lost to Manchester City, Leicester City has suffered a wave of three consecutive defeats in the league before they know it!

(End of chapter)