Brendan Rodgers sends message to supporters ahead of Leicester City against PSV Eindhoven

Leicester City "do not have a rich history in European football” and that makes Thursday’s clash with PSV Eindhoven a bigger occasion for the club and supporters.

City are competing in just their second-ever European quarter-final, welcoming the Dutch giants in the Europa Conference League last eight. It is only the club's sixth season playing continental football and that pales in comparison to the record of the visitors, who are in Europe for the 48th campaign in a row and who were the European Cup winners in 1988.

Because these occasions have been so rare for City, Rodgers knows it is a big deal for the fans, who will pack out a sold-out King Power Stadium on Thursday night. He has called on those supporters to help give City an advantage going into the second leg.

“We don’t have a rich history in European football, so to be in a European quarter-final of any competition is deemed a real occasion,” Rodgers said at his press conference. “The supporters have been brilliant here, so they will be behind the team, creating a special atmosphere, and we will need that. We want to play with that tempo and that intensity in the game and the supporters can be a really big help for that.

“It’s great that the stadium’s full. It should be, it’s a good game against a really good team. We hope to have a good advantage coming out of the first leg.”

City do have a few players in their squad who have experience of this sort of occasion though. Kasper Schmeichel and Marc Albrighton were in the City team that played Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final five years ago, while Jonny Evans, Timothy Castagne, Youri Tielemans, and Ricardo Pereira have all played in European last eight clashes for previous sides. For the