Martin O'Neill is hoping Leicester City are given a better run by the referees in Europe on Tuesday night.

The reigning Premier League champions host Atletico Madrid at the King Power Stadium in the quarter-final second leg following last week's 1-0 defeat, which came courtesy of a questionable penalty awarded to Antoine Griezmann.

The Foxes were beaten by Atletico in European competition back in 1997 when they succumbed to a 2-0 second leg defeat at Filbert Street after being in the contest at 2-1 from the first leg in Spain.

Then-manager O'Neill bemoaned the subpar performance from French ref Remi Harrel and hopes today's Leicester side are given more of a chance in the East Midlands tonight.

"We had qualified by winning the League Cup and ended up playing Atletico Madrid who are just spending fortunes at that time," said O'Neill.

"And we still should have got through. The referee, to me, he gave us nothing at Filbert Street. We should have had penalties. I swear to God. I'm not joking.

"I don't think he ever refereed another European game after that."

He added: "I'd left Leicester when the club last played in Europe in 2000-01 under Peter Taylor.

"But we had a fine side with centre halves like Steve Walsh and Matty Elliott.

"Elliott is as good a centre half as has played in the last 20 years, as good as any centre half playing in today's football.

"Those decisions by that referee on that day denied players like him a decent run in European football. I trust it doesn't happen again to these Leicester players."