Well that’s your lot. It’s been, well, mixed, but ultimately rewarding both for the neutral and for Leicester, who scream into the knockout rounds. Bye!
The second half was immeasurably better than the first. After their goal Brugge threatened regularly, particularly from set pieces. Leicester were worryingly uncomfortable, but had a couple of decent chances of their own on the break, and Demarai Gray might have scored twice. Altogether, rather fun.
Some early reaction to the win, first from Wes Morgan:
It’s fantastic. It’s more than we could have imagined. For Leicester to finish top of the group is a great achievement. We felt very comfortable first half, and just wanted to maintain our performance. The goal was a bit of a blow and we had to really dig in. Great result, fantastic performance from the players. We’re through to the next stage, we’ll see who we get and then we’ll prepare for that game.
And then Riyad Mahrez:
We wanted to finish first. It wasn’t that easy today, but we did it and we’re very happy to be first. My goal? It was just a penalty. I help the team to win games and we’re very happy to be first and to keep going in the Champions League.
Updated
Leicester win Group G!
Porto have been held 0-0 in Copenhagen, and cannot catch Leicester whatever happens in the final round of fixtures! Brugge’s European adventure will meanwhile end for this season at least after Copenhagen’s visit on 7 December.
Final score: Leicester 2-1 Brugge
90+4 mins: It’s over!
90+3 mins: Gray’s shot is saved! Schlupp runs down the left, pulls back to Drinkwater, who passes to Gray on the right. A bit more zip on the pass would have helped, but even so, it was a decent chance.
Updated
90+2 mins: Gray escapes from his marker on the left flank, runs into the area, sees a gaggle of defenders in the middle, runs straight into them and is dispossessed.
90+1 mins: There will be at least three minutes of stoppage time.
90 mins: Brugge run down the other end, but Vossen blasts his shot wide.
89 mins: Gray misses Leicester’s best chance of the half! He plays a one-two with Vardy, rushes clear, but Butelle stands tall and gets in the way of the shot! The one of the one-two was pretty spectacular – a fabulous touch from Gray.
86 mins: Ooof! Van Rhijn takes a mean corner! This one is pacy and whippy and dipping and bounces off the thigh of a totally uncomfortable Huth and goes behind.
84 mins: Tonight’s final substitution sees Brugge bring off Claudemir and bring on Wesley.
84 mins: Oooof! Brugge nearly score! Van Rhijn takes a corner, Vanaken flicks on at the near post and the ball flies across goal and somehow nobody turns it in!
82 mins: The 15 minutes or so during which Brugge were looking really quite motivated and pretty threatening appear to be over. Leicester are attacking in fairly casual style once again, Amartey ending the long and rather aimless move with a long-range and rather aimless shot.
79 mins: … which Morgan nods behind for a corner.
79 mins: It’s Claudemir who’s the long throw expert. He’s about to unleash another.
78 mins: As predicted by Doremus, Albrighton comes off. In a novel twist, though, it’s Amartey who replaces him.
Updated
74 mins: A fabulously long throw from a Brugge player on the left flank becomes less impressive when the officials decide it’s a foul throw. “If Leicester now bring on Musa for Albrighton (as they have on previous occasions), will that be the fastest front four (Vardy, Musa, Schlupp, Gray) ever seen in a Champions League game?” wonders Doremus Schafer. They would certainly be terrifyingly rapid.
72 mins: Another goal chalked off for Brugge, Claudemir being well offside before he set up Vossen. This is growing in entertainment value as the minutes tick by.
70 mins: That really was semi-criminal from Schlupp, who had two totally unmarked team-mates to easily play in. Brugge make a second substitute, with De Bock going off and Van Rhijn coming on.
69 mins: Leicester’s best moment of the half sees the ball played infield to Schlupp, whose nearest opponent dives in foolishly and can then head off towards goal with lots of space to run into and two team-mates to play in. He passes to neither, and shoots low at Butelle from 18 yards.
68 mins: Leicester make their double change. Same two players coming on as on Saturday, and in the same minute, but this time Riyad Mahrez goes off with Okazaki.
65 mins: Leicester seem to be preparing a double substitution, with Gray and Schlupp stripping off. On Saturday the very same players came on in the 68th minute, replacing Fuchs and Okazaki. Will Ranieri opt for a repeat?
63 mins: The other game in this group, between Copenhagen and Porto, remains goalless and as things standard Leicester would win the group tonight.
62 mins: A fine chipped pass lets Limbombe run into the area, but he delays the shot a few moments too long and then finally blasts well wide.
61 mins: Brugge bring on Tony Limbombe, and take off Tomas Pina.
61 mins: Brugge have a goal disallowed! Claudemir makes his run a moment too soon, is nicely found, finishes well, but it won’t count.
59 mins: Vardy has a goal disallowed! Fuchs’ cross from the left is cleverly outside-of-the-foot flicked by Vardy, the ball rolling across goal and nestling inside the far post, but the linesman’s flag is rightly raised.
Updated
57 mins: Leicester win a corner, win another corner and then win another corner. The third is cleared by Simons.
55 mins: The goal is good news for the neutrals, awakening both the crowd and a match that had been meandering sleepily into lifelesness.
54 - Leicester have conceded their first Champions League goal from the 54th shot they have faced this season. Breached.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 22, 2016
53 mins: So that’s the end of Leicester’s unbeaten European defensive record.
GOAL! Leicester 2-1 Brugge (Izquierdo)
What a goal! The ball is played to Izquierdo on the half-way line, and he sprints clear of Fuchs, zooms into the penalty area and then smashes the ball with his right foot and it screams into the top corner at the near post!
Updated
51 mins: Another low cross from Vardy, this time from the right, but the keeper catches.
49 mins: Fuchs twice causes panic in the visitors’ defence, first with a long throw, flicked on by Huth at the near post, which is frantically cleared, and then with a low cross, flicked on by Vardy at the near post, which is also frantically cleared.
Peeeeeep!
46 mins: We’re off! Again!
The players are back out. Another 45 minutes of Foxy coasting awaits.
Sevilla conceded an apparently very dubious penalty against Juventus towards the end of the half, and thus Leicester are now the only side in this season’s Champions League yet to concede a goal in the competition.
Half time: Leicester 2-0 Brugge
45+1 mins: And blows his whistle 11 seconds later! It has been both quietly impressive and also a little dull.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time. The referee signals no added minutes.
42 mins: Zieler makes a proper save! Izquierdo tries to curl the ball into the far corner with his right foot from a yard outside the area, but Zieler dives to his left to push it clear. The ball was, to be fair, nowhere near the corner, but the save looked dramatic.
41 mins: From the corner Morgan arrives late, rises highest and heads towards goal, where Butelle saves.
40 mins: Vardy skips down the left again, eventually winning a corner. Neither Brugge full-back appears much cop at this defending lark.
36 mins: Vardy is released down the right, sprints to reach the ball, looks up and is inevitably about 30 yards ahead of all his team-mates. By the time they catch up and he sends in a cross, the defence is pretty well organised, and head clear.
33 mins: Dortmund are 5-2 up now.
31 mins: Riyad Mahrez’s penalty was struck only a couple of seconds into the 30th minute, which is a slight shame as in the first game against Brugge Leicester had gone ahead in the fifth minute, as they did today, and then extended their lead through Mahrez in the 29th.
Updated
31 mins: Elsewhere in the Champions League, Copenhagen and Porto remain tired at 0-0, as indeed does everyone else except Sevilla, 1-0 up at home to Juventus, and Borussia Dortmund, who are having a goal-crazy evening against Legia Warsaw, being as they are 4-2 up with half an hour played.
GOAL! Leicester 2-0 Brugge (Mahrez)
30 mins: Mahrez strolls up, jinks, lets Butelle commit himself and then shoots low, just left of centre, as the keeper goes the other way.
Updated
Penalty to Leicester!
28 mins: Albrighton goes past Cools, whose defending fails to live up to his name. He dangles a leg out, Albrighton goes over it, and Leicester have themselves a spot kick.
Updated
26 mins: A long ball is played up to Vossen, who controls on his chest, spins and then, having done everything beautifully up to this point, slips and falls over. Still, Brugge are showing signs of life.
24 mins: This time Brugge to get their heads to a cross first, but Hans Vanaken’s effort has little power, and Zieler catches.
23 mins: Brugge win a corner, but Simpson gets his head to it first. The atmosphere feels a little bit flat currently. Winning in the Champions League isn’t the novelty it once was.
20 mins: Leicester, perhaps scarred by recent experience, are now in no hurry to get the ball into the penalty area. Instead they pass it about with little pace or intent, and eventually Albrighton hits a long, high, crossfield pass straight into touch.
18 mins: Another low cross, this time from Simpson, but though once again the delivery is pretty good, once again a defender reaches it first.
16 mins: Leicester break, with Vardy screaming past his marker on the left wing before crossing across the ground, but neither Mahrez nor Okazaki had predicted its path, and it rolls ahead of both of them and across goal.
Updated
16 mins: Brugge kind-of-attack! It’s little more than a bit of penalty-area pinball, but the ball might have gone anywhere, and in the end rolls gently to Zieler.
12 mins: Leicester are up for this. Albrighton drops his shoulder and ghosts past a defender and towards the byline, but fails to pick out a team-mate with the cross.
11 mins: Okazaki has another left-foot half-volley, from a near-identical position to the last, but this time the ball’s a bit behind him and he can’t get any power on his shot.
Early signs here suggest Brugge left-back Laurens De Bock does not possess a right foot.
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) November 22, 2016
10 mins: Brugge get the ball into the penalty area but it’s too far ahead of Izquierdo, and Zieler collects.
8 mins: Save! Mahrez runs into the area, gets to the byline, checks back, checks back again and then blasts a low shot towards the near post, which Butelle turns wide!
Updated
GOAL! Leicester 1-0 Brugge (Okazaki, 5 mins)
The first shot of the game flies into the top corner! Fuchs goes down the left, bumps into a defender, thinks about falling over, decides against it, plays a low ball into the area and Okazaki half-volleys it with his left foot just inside the near post! Excellent goal!
Updated
3 mins: A slow opening, which given what happened at Vicarage Road on Saturday is probably not unwelcome.
Peeeeeeeeep!
1 min: Brugge, now white-shirted with a red sash in a vaguely River Plate style, kick off.
Hands have been shaken and coins tossed, so there are just a few moments between us and footballing fun.
The players are in the tunnel, Leicester in their blue tops and Brugge also in their blue tops (presumably they’ll be taken off at some point).
Claudio Ranieri has been a-talkin’:
Of course this is the last match at home in the group and we’d like to enjoy our fans of course. With one point we go to the knock-out. That is important. One step. The next step is top the group. Now, keep calm and fight together.
[On Brugge] Yes, I think all the matches are very problematic. Brugge is a good team. I don’t understand how they don’t have a point in the table because they play good football and they create good chances, against us and Copenhagen and Porto, but that’s football. Very strange.
On his one team change: I change when I can change. King and Amartey both make the same job and I want to give him a rest to be able for the next match.
On Vardy’s lack of goals: I’m sure Vardy sooner or later has to score. I think 11 matches without score. Now he is ready to score.
On Leicester’s defensive record in the Champions League: I’m very proud, but of course I’m a little sad for the Premier League. But tonight, we think only about the Champions League.
If you want to relive September’s game between these sides, well, you can’t. But you can read this, for free!
One of the great benefits of being a Leicester fan – other than watching your team win the actual league and everything – is that the club keep giving you presents. Everyone at Vicarage Road got a blue and white stripy hat – the away end looked like a Where’s Wally convention (where everyone got the colours wrong). Tonight’s fans look particularly excited by their giant fan-type thing.
So Leicester have left out Amartey, and brought in King. Otherwise they are unchanged.
I saw this tweet and thought: “Well, there are some people doing a silly pose, I bet this caption is absolutely hilarious.” And so I checked. It means: “The dressing room is ready. Line-ups follow shortly.” To say I am disappointed would be an understatement.
De kleedkamer is klaar... Opstellingen volgen zo dadelijk! #LeiClu #UCL pic.twitter.com/c4torSNREQ
— Club Brugge KV (@ClubBrugge) November 22, 2016
I like the name Ruddy Buquet a lot. He’ll probably have a stinker.
Tonight's teams
The team sheets are in, and this is what they look like:
Or, in textual form if that’s how you like it:
Leicester: Zieler; Simpson, Huth, Morgan, Fuchs; Mahrez, King, Drinkwater, Albrighton; Vardy, Okazaki. Subs: Hamer, Hernandez, Musa, Amartey, Schlupp, Gray, Ulloa.
Club Brugge: Butelle; Cools, Poulain, Mechele, De Bock; Claudemir, Simons, Pina, Vanaken; Vossen, Izquierdo. Subs: Bruzzese, Van Rhijn, Wesley, Limbombe, Gelipe Gedoz, Denswil, Bolingoli.
Referee: Ruddy Buquet (France).
Updated
Hello world!
The questions mount for Leicester City, who lost for the sixth time in this Premier League season at Watford on Saturday, but a 3-0 victory at the Jan Breydel Stadium in September surely answered the one about whether they are better than Club Brugge. The Belgians needed a 95th-minute penalty to beat STVV, second-bottom of the Jupiler League, on Friday, and logically tonight should be little more than an opportunity for a morale boost ahead of this weekend’s home game against Middlesbrough. But then, football and logic never were particularly happy bedfellows, as Leicester have made a habit of proving over the last couple of years.
Anyway, and most importantly, hello!
Simon will be here shortly.
In the meantime ... why not read Stuart James’s preview?
