Leicester City have had some incredible highs and tragic lows during Marc Albrighton’s six-year spell at the King Power Stadium, but the game that nearly brought him to tears was the 3-1 win over Liverpool in February 2017. Albrighton has scored historic Champions League goals and played a huge part in the astonishing Premier League title triumph. He also played in the poignant matches following chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s death.
But he has said no fixture has prompted such an overwhelming emotional release like the victory over the Reds in the first match under Craig Shakespeare. Title-winning boss Claudio Ranieri had been sacked after a run of five Premier League losses and with City slumping towards the relegation zone. With accusations that the players went behind the Italian’s back to get him the chop, the squad were pent up with frustration.
Albrighton said: “It was more emotion than anything. A lot had been said and written and we had to go a few days with listening to these stories and not being able to do anything about it. It was a game of pure letting your frustration out. We were just going to stick together as a group and go out and do people proud that you felt like you’ve let down in the past. I think that’s what we did. I remember being close to tears with that game. Just walking out, I was so ready, I was more pumped for that game than I’ve ever been pumped for a game before. I remember standing in the tunnel thinking: ‘Get me out there.’ With getting the result, it was one of those games where after you get home, you sit down and you take a few deep breaths and think: ‘We’ve done people proud there that we needed to do proud. We’ve got the right outcome.’”
