CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Sevilla fear a ‘Shakespearean’ tragedy
Three weeks between last-16 legs in Europe’s elite competition is a positive eternity with Ranieri already fondly consigned to history
London — Remember Claudio Ranieri? The man who penned the most romantic story in football’s annals by making Leicester City English champions and who walked away from Sevilla’s stadium in February believing he could write another in the Champions League. Well, if a week is a long time in football, three weeks between last-16 legs in Europe’s elite competition is a positive eternity with Ranieri already fondly consigned to history. It is to the chagrin of many in Leicester that their Italian folk hero has gone, denied the opportunity to try to guide them into the quarterfinals at King Power Stadium on Tuesday. Instead, in his old assistant Craig Shakespeare, who on Sunday was handed the manager’s job until the end of the season, a city — and an impatient club board — now trusts. At 2-1 down and with Jamie Vardy’s away goal offering a raft to cling to on a night when Leicester were outplayed, Ranieri had not unreasonably felt the result might be the turning point in a woeful season. A...
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