Leicester vs Slavia Praha: UEFA Europa League background, form guide, previous meetings

After a first-leg stalemate in Prague, Leicester City and Slavia Praha will both fancy their chances of reaching the UEFA Europa League round of 16 as they meet again in England's East Midlands.

• Competition novices Leicester made light work of Group G in the autumn, securing their knockout phase berth with two matches to spare and finishing top on head-to-head above Braga with 13 points. Slavia, meanwhile, made up for a UEFA Champions League play-off defeat by convincingly coming through a UEFA Europa League section headed by Bayer Leverkusen.

Previous meetings
• Leicester's first UEFA encounter with a team from the Czech Republic turned out to be a goalless affair, with neither they nor hosts Slavia able to break the deadlock during 90 closely-contested minutes at the Eden Arena.

• Slavia have won just one of their 12 UEFA matches against English opposition (D3 L8), losing all four of their two-legged knockout ties, the most recent against Chelsea in the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League quarter-final, when Jindřich Trpišovský's team were beaten both in Prague (0-1) and London (3-4), midfielder Petr Ševčík scoring a double in the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

• Slavia are without a win in five previous visits to England, losing four of those games and drawing the other, 1-1 at Tottenham in the third round of the 2007/08 UEFA Cup. The only one of those encounters staged outside London was the first – a 3-0 defeat at Leeds United in the quarter-final first leg of the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup.

Form guide
 Leicester
• Leicester finished fifth in the 2019/20 Premier League to qualify for a first appearance in the UEFA Europa League and direct entry to the group stage.

• This is only the club's fifth European campaign. Their most successful was the most recent, in 2016/17, when, as champions of England, they made their debut appearance in the UEFA Champions League, topped their group and went on to reach the quarter-finals – the best performance by any English club in the competition that season – where they lost to Atlético de Madrid.

• They are now playing springtime European football for only the second time, having breezed through their UEFA Europa League group in the autumn, claiming early qualification with wins in their first three matches – against Zorya Luhansk (3-0 h), AEK Athens (2-1 a) and Braga (4-0 h) – and a last-gasp 3-3 draw in Portugal. Despite a first defeat, 0-1 at Zorya, on Matchday 5, they closed their campaign with a third successive home win, 2-0 against AEK, to ensure progress as group winners.

• Leicester are unbeaten in nine European home matches (W7 D2) since losing 0-2 to Atlético in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup first round second leg. They scored nine goals without reply in their three Group G home victories, including 4-0 against Braga on Matchday 3, the club's biggest European home win.

• Leicester have never previously drawn the first leg away from home in a European tie.

Slavia
• Champions of the Czech Republic for the third time in four years last season, Slavia missed out on a second successive UEFA Champions League group stage adventure this term when, led again by coach Trpišovský, they were defeated by Midtjylland in the play-offs (0-0 h, 1-4 a).

• Fourth in their UEFA Champions League section last season, behind Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Internazionale, Slavia finished second in their UEFA Europa League group this term, a run of four successive wins from Matchday 2 to Matchday 5 enabling them to finish runners-up to Leverkusen – who closed the section by beating them 4-0 in Germany – ahead of Hapoel Beer-Sheva and Nice.

• This is the second time in four attempts that Slavia have made it through the group stage to the knockout phase. Their one previous round of 32 tie proved successful as they followed up a goalless draw against Genk with a resounding 4-1 second-leg win in Belgium. They then pulled off a momentous round of 16 win against competition specialists Sevilla (2-2 a, 4-3 h aet) before going out to Chelsea.

• Slavia's 3-1 win at Nice on Matchday 4 is one of only two victories in their last ten European away fixtures (D3 L5), though they did draw at both Inter (1-1) and Barcelona (0-0) in last season's UEFA Champions League. Their overall record on the road in the UEFA Europa League proper is W4 D4 L7.

• Slavia have won four of the ten UEFA ties in which they drew the first leg at home. All four victories have come after goalless draws, with one win after extra time and two on away goals before that comprehensive comeback against Genk two years ago. One of the two losses following a 0-0 draw, however, came earlier this season, when they were defeated 4-1 by Midtjylland in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off – though they took an early lead in that game and were on course for qualification until the Danish side scored three goals in the last six minutes.

UEFA Europa League squad changes
• Leicester
 In: Daniel Amartey
 Out: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Luton, loan), Wes Morgan

• Slavia
 In: Alexander Bah (SonderyskE), Simon Deli (Club Brugge, loan), Jakub Hromada
 Out: Petar Musa (Union Berlin, loan), Ondřej Karafiát (Liberec, loan), Tomáš Malinský (Mladá Boleslav, loan)

Links and trivia
• Leicester's Youri Tielemans and Slavia's Nicolae Stanciu were Belgian title winners together at Anderlecht in 2016/17.

• Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers has lost all four of his previous UEFA Europa League round of 32 ties – two in charge of Liverpool (against Zenit in 2012/13 and Beşiktaş in 2014/15) and two with Celtic (against Zenit again in 2017/18 and Valencia in 2018/19).

• Slavia's Peter Olayinka is a Nigeria team-mate of Leicester's Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho, although the latter is suspended for this match.

• Leicester are the only one of the 48 clubs who entered this season's group stage having never played a match in the UEFA Europa League, qualifying included. One of six group stage debutants this term, they are now one of five clubs appearing in the knockout phase of the competition for the first time, alongside Antwerp, Granada, Hoffenheim and Wolfsberg.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Leicester have yet to feature in a UEFA penalty shoot-out.

• Slavia's record in two UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W2 L0:
5-4 v Schalke, 1998/99 UEFA Cup first round
4-3 v Žilina, 2007/08 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round