Premier League champions Leicester City trail Sevilla 2-1 in their Champions League last 16 clash ahead of this evening’s second leg at the King Power Stadium.

The Foxes netted a crucial away goal three weeks ago to give themselves a chance against the La Liga title hopefuls, but goals from Pablo Sarabia and Joaquin Correa does give the Spanish side the advantage heading into this evening’s encounter.

However, the Premier League champions have seen an upturn in form since the first leg, which has also coincided with the sacking of manager Claudio Ranieri, who saw his hugely successful stint at the King Power Stadium come to an end after the 2-1 defeat in Spain.

Since then though, Craig Shakespeare has led the Foxes to two crucial Premier League victories in their bid for survival, and the 53-year-old has since been named as the club’s new full-time manager until the end of the campaign.

And with two wins out of two over Liverpool and then Hull, Shakespeare has clearly got the Leicester team playing in a similar way to what we saw last season, and that could spell danger for Sevilla this evening.

With the build-up well underway ahead of tonight’s second leg, here are THREE reasons why Leicester will win and indeed progress to the last eight of the Champions League…

Decent home record in Europe

Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

It may have been a tricky season for Leicester so far, but their home record got them into the knockout stages of the Champions League, and is indeed keeping them out of the bottom three in the Premier League.

The Foxes won all three of their group stage games in the competition earlier in the season, beating FC Porto and FC Copenhagen 1-0 and then Club Brugge 2-1, while they have also won seven of their 14 league games at the King Power Stadium this term, losing just four.

With back-to-back home league wins, as well as good memories of earlier in the Champions League, Leicester will fancy themselves at home, and that should set them in good stead against Sevilla this evening.

Back-to-back Premier League wins

Leicester started 2017 with eight defeats in their first 11 matches in all competitions, and that ultimately led to former boss Claudio Ranieri losing his job at the club.

However, since then, the Foxes have won both of their Premier League games, with a fine 3-1 success over Liverpool backed up by an equally impressive and important 3-1 win over Hull a few days later.

They were excellent against Jurgen Klopp’s Reds, looking exactly like the side that won the title last season, while when the pressure was on against the Tigers after falling behind, they produced another great display to pick up all three points.

There’s a feel-good factor around the club at the moment, and that away goal in Sevilla has given them a real chance of overturning the deficit this evening.

Shakespeare has made huge difference

Several supporters up and down the country were stunned and saddened to see Claudio Ranieri lose his job at the King Power Stadium, but there’s no doubt, based on what we’ve seen since then, that he wasn’t getting the best out of the team, for one reason or another.

And new boss Craig Shakespeare, assistant to the Italian, deserves huge credit for making a seismic difference in the team’s performances and results.

His first game in caretaker charge saw the Foxes go back to what they know in the 3-1 win over Liverpool, with Jamie Vardy outstanding, and he then galvanised the troops to come from a goal down and beat Hull just a few days later.

Shakespeare was appointed as full-time manager until the end of the season, which is sure to give the club another huge boost ahead of tonight’s game – it may even be enough to get the result which would see them progress to the last eight of the Champions League.