A stopover at Germany's Illerstadion awaits Leicester City on Saturday, as Steve Cooper's men take on Augsburg in their penultimate pre-season friendly.
Both sides were beaten in their most recent exhibition affairs, as the Foxes went down 1-0 to Palermo, while their Bundesliga hosts lost 2-1 to South African unit TS Galaxy.
Match preview
A third win from three pre-season contests may have been on the menu of several Leicester fans before their side's showdown with Palermo, which succeeded 2-1 triumphs over Shrewsbury Town and Villarreal for the Championship champions.
However, with exactly one hour gone at Chesterfield's SMH Group Stadium, Federico Di Francesco capitalised on a defensive calamity to tap home from close range, and a brief period of Foxes pressure did not lead to the coveted equaliser.
Despite overseeing Leicester's first beating of the pre-season period, Cooper insisted that the Foxes' overall performance was the best he had witnessed so far this summer, albeit while lamenting his side's distinct lack of ruthlessness inside the penalty area.
The Premier League returnees only have another 180 minutes to fine-tune their attacking play, though, as after Saturday's contest with Augsburg, Cooper's troops head to France to clash with Lens on August 10 in their last match of pre-season.
That quick trip across the English Channel comes nine day before Leicester's top-flight baptism of fire, as Tottenham Hotspur provide a stern opening weekend test, although the Foxes were briefly in action against German seventh-tier side Rot-Weiss Weiler on Wednesday, where a thunderstorm saw the match abandoned after just 40 minutes.
One match that did not succumb to the elements was Augsburg's recent battle with TS Galaxy, where similarly to upcoming foes Leicester, Jess Thorup's side were also bidding for a third straight friendly success after sinking Schwaben Augsburg and Young Africans.
The exhibition contest took place at the Mbombela Stadium - one of the grounds to host 2010 World Cup matches - where Puso Dithejane and Samukele Kabini put the African outfit two goals to the good in the first half, although Henri Koudossou responded five minutes after the restart.
Augsburg's search for a leveller was helped by TS Galaxy going down to 10 men for the final 10 minutes, but the equalising strike also eluded Thorup's team, whose return to losing ways represented a return to their end-of-season Bundesliga form.
Indeed, each of Augsburg's last five top-flight matches of the 2024-25 season saw Augsburg condemned to defeat, and things do not get any easier for the German crop later this month, as French giants Marseille await for their final friendly on August 10.
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Team News
Leicester boss Cooper has seen his international stars return in dribs and drabs over the past several days, as Mads Hermansen, Victor Kristiansen and Bobby Decordova-Reid all earned minutes against Palermo following their Euros and Copa America feats.
Jannik Vestergaard's involvement and Wout Faes's recovery from a toe issue means that Yunus Akgun is now Leicester's sole international absentee, but Cooper was without veteran striker Jamie Vardy for the Palermo loss.
The ex-England international is yet to recover from the knock he sustained against Villarreal, and there is not much in the way of optimism that he will be fit for the weekend.
As for Augsburg, Swiss attacker Ruben Vargas was the only Fuggerstadter representative to compete at Euro 2024, but the 25-year-old was not back in time for the loss to TS Galaxy and may be absent here too.
The Fuggerstadter were severely weakened in their most recent defeat, where Croatian pair Nediljko Labrovic and Kristijan Jakic were denied entry to South Africa, while Steve Mounie returned to his native Benin for personal reasons.
Irvin Cardona, Fredrik Jensen, Robert Gumny and Reece Oxford are also out of contention for the Bundesliga side; the latter has not played for Augsburg since late 2022 due to a combination of muscular injuries and long COVID.
Augsburg possible starting lineup:
Labrovic; Koudossou, Gouweleeuw, Uduokhai, Giannoulis; Rexhbecaj, Jakic, Maier; Komur; Tietz, Essende
Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Hermansen; Pereira, Okoli, Vestergaard, Justin; Ndidi, Soumare, Winks; Fatawu, Daka, Mavididi
We say: Augsburg 1-1 Leicester City
While Augsburg's loss to South African opposition may have raised an eyebrow at a first glance, the German side were dealing with a plethora of absentees and should cut stronger figures on Saturday.
Whether such expected improvement is enough to beat top-flight opposition is another question entirely, but Leicester were far from ruthless in their Palermo loss and may have to settle for a draw here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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