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Leicester City vs Porto: Claudio Ranieri calls for calm as Foxes maintain 100 per cent Champions League record

Leicester City 1 Porto 0: Slimani scored as Foxes need four points from their remaining games

Mark Ogden
at the King Power Stadium
Tuesday 27 September 2016 22:44 BST
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(Getty Images)

Claudio Ranieri called for Leicester City to be ‘calm’ after moving to within four points of the Champions League knock-out stages with victory against FC Porto.

Leicester, Champions League debutants this season, maintained their 100 per cent record in the competition with Islam Slimani’s first-half goal proving enough to secure victory against the two-time European champions.

A win and a draw against FC Copenhagen in the next two games will ensure Leicester’s qualification from Group G.

But after playing down Leicester’s title hopes throughout last season, Ranieri now insists it is too early to contemplate life in the knock-out stages.

"Will we qualify? I'm waiting and if I touch, I believe,” Ranieri said. “We have to continue and stay calm.

“Copenhagen won 4-0 (against Club Brugge), they are very organised and it is important for us to clean the mind and go back to the Premier League.

“We are new in the Champions League and anything could happen. I want to be calm and now I switch my mind to the next match."

Slimani’s performance proved decisive for Leicester with the £29.8m club record signing claiming his seventh goal in seven games against Porto having previously tormented his opponents during his time with Sporting Lisbon.

(Getty Images (Getty Images)

“I was very confident with Slimani because he often scores against Porto when he was a Sporting player,” Ranieri said. “I spoke with Riyad (Mahrez) and Islam and said, ‘come on guys, make something good tonight.’

“They made the pass and scored the goal, after that we defended very well.

"It's important now for Slimani to adapt to our way. We have to improve the movement of the strikers.”

Having made it two wins out of two in the group, Leicester also kept their second successive Champions League clean sheet following the opening day 3-0 win in Bruges.

And after conceding four goals against Manchester United at the weekend, Ranieri admits that defensive solidity was a crucial element out of the game.

“It was important to win because Porto are a very good team,” he said. “It was important to score a goal and defend very well.

"I spoke a lot with the players to maintain a clean sheet and my players tonight were very concentrated, very strong and attentive in every situation.

“It was good for everybody after the bad defeat in Manchester.”

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