Claudio Ranieri believes the Champions League has woken Riyad Mahrez after the Algerian put in a superb performance to earn the Foxes a comprehensive 3-0 win at Club Brugge in their debut in the Europe’s premier club competition.
Mahrez was the star on the night as his double saw Leicester start their European adventure with an impressive away win in Belgium.
The Algerian has had a rather underwhelming start to the Premier League season, having taken the league by storm last term and emerged as the best player but given his impressive display on Wednesday night, Ranieri has said his attacker was woken by the sound of the Champions League song.
“Maybe the music woke him up. Maybe he is very tired of dilly-ding dilly-dong and prefers the Champions League music. He was very good but I like him when he covers the zone very well,” Ranieri said.
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The former Chelsea boss also took the time to praise his team’s effort, especially after coming off a heavy defeat to Liverpool in the Premier League.
“It was important to show the reaction after the Liverpool defeat. This is an experience for and us we hope to go through the group and play again. We have played the first match, there are another five.
“It is historic, it was very important to start our story with a victory. We made a good match but it could have changed if they scored their chance at the beginning. With our first chance we scored.
“From that point they had control of the ball but we had control of the match and could counter. We played our style.”
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