Foxes ready for Liverpool

The Foxes narrowly edged West Bromwich 7-6 in a penalty shootout after Wednesday’s game ended 1-1 at full time, while Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 2-0 to set up a final with Shakespeare’s squad.

 Under Shakespeare’s guidance following the sacking of Claudio Ranieri, the 2015-16 EPL champions beat the Reds 3-1 in February, as he went on to become the first EPL manager to win his four league matches.

“I remember the first game against Liverpool very well as it was my first game in charge. We managed to get a really good result . 

Hopefully Liverpool remember that too,” said the man from Birmingham whose side finished 12th in the last season.

“This is the final. Both teams will be keen to put on a good performance for their own fans. It’s the start of the pre-season for both of us. We had only one game against West Bromwich and we managed to get the goal in the 45 minutes,” Shakespeare added.

The Foxes manager is also eager to get his players in great shape as quickly as possible with a tough assignment against Arsenal in their season-opening game next month. But a trophy in their Asian swing should be a good boost for the new season.

Riyard Mahrez 

“Whenever you play in a tournament, it’s nice to come back with an trophy. Any footballer in any competitive sport will tell you that the winning mentality and the winning spirit is there. Of course, as a football club, we don’t want to pick up any injuries, but when you put a football team on the pitch and the 11 best are in the 11, competitiveness takes over. I expect no different on Saturday,” he said.

Leicester City's players during the training session on Friday.