Miquel calls for fighting spirit from Leicester City ahead of Aston Villa clash

Leicester City manager Amandine Miquel has called on her side to show fighting spirit when they face Aston Villa at The King Power Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Foxes are unbeaten at home in four matches in all competitions, however, they continue to hover dangerously above the relegation zone.

When speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s fixture, Leicester City boss Miquel said that a fighting mentality has helped boost her side’s recent home form and The Foxes need to bring that attribute to the game against Aston Villa.

“It is important that we show the mental fighting spirit that we’ve had since December,” Miquel said. “We’ve lost it a little in moments in recent [away] games, that’s okay but the main thing is that it doesn’t last. You can have bad moments, we are humans, but you just have to make sure that you bounce back. We have to make sure that we are a hard team to play against this weekend.”

An injury-hit Leicester City side drew 0-0 at Aston Villa in the reverse fixture back in October and Miquel hopes to see her team have more of an offensive spark this weekend.

She said “That game was the first one where we had no available offensive players. We were resilient in that game but in the last 15 minutes, the ball was around our goal a lot. We managed to keep it out of the net and that’s what I want to see again this weekend, I want to see that defensive resilience and fighting spirit of the team with a bit more offensively.”

Aston Villa recently appointed Natalia Arroyo as their new head coach. Miquel sees some subtle changes in The Villans’ style of play but says that it will take time for the team to evolve.

She said “She’s a manager that we know about and have assessed. I wouldn’t say that she has implemented her style at Aston Villa yet because it takes time but there are some things that are evolving slowly. They’re moving more to her style than what they had initially. We will be cautious of that this weekend.”

Leicester City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Aston Villa kicks-off at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.

About The Author

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of the WSL Full-Time brand which I launched in 2018.

I am an accredited journalist with the FWA, SJA and AIPS. I have reported from various levels of men’s and women’s elite football since 2016.