Leicester City celebrated their first ever Champions League match by romping to victory away to Belgium’s Club Brugge.
Marc Albrighton scored with the Foxes’ first shot after a defensive error from right-back Luis Hernandez’s long throw.
Riyad Mahrez curled in a masterful free-kick for 2-0 before half-time.
Mahrez smashed in a penalty after Jamie Vardy was brought down by the keeper before Brugge’s Jose Izquierdo hit the post, adding to his bad miss at 0-0.
There will be more difficult games than this, but the Premier League champions displayed a maturity and composure that suggests potential to achieve plenty more success at the elite level of European club football.
This was only the ninth European match in Leicester’s history, and their first win since a victory over Glenavon of Northern Ireland in the preliminary round of the 1961-62 Cup Winners’ Cup – when 1966 World Cup winner Gordon Banks was in goal.
Leicester could have won by more on Wednesday.
Danny Drinkwater went close with a dipping volley struck on the turn with the ball almost at ground level from outside the box, while Robert Huth might have added a fourth from another of Hernandez’s several long throws.
Debutant and club record signing Islam Slimani should have made more of a terrible Benoit Poulain back pass, and was booked for shoving Bjorn Engels in the back, with the Belgian defender forced off with what looked like a dislocated shoulder.
In the night’s other match in Group G, Portuguese club FC Porto drew 1-1 at home to FC Copenhagen of Denmark.
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