RB Leipzig 1 Bayer Leverkusen 1
BAYER LEVERKUSEN boss Peter Bosz hopes that star man Kai Havertz will show the Ibrox crowd exactly why he is being linked with a £100 million move to some of Europe’s top clubs.
The German giants travel to Scotland a week on Thursday to face Rangers in the last 16 of the Europa League.
Havertz has attracted attention from Liverpool, Manchester United and Bayer Munich and caught the eye in his side’s draw yesterday with RB Leipzig.
The 20-year-old set up his side’s opener, scored by the Jamaican Leon Bailey, as they held Julian Nagelsmann’s Leipzig to a 1-1 draw. It extended Leverkusen’s unbeaten run to seven matches, but they will be baffled how they left without taking all three points after Patrik Schick’s equaliser.
Leverkusen have another two matches before they face Rangers. On Wednesday they host Union Berlin in the German Cup before Frankfurt travel to the BayArena in the Bundesliga next Saturday.
Havertz has been described as a player with the technique of Mesut Ozil and the engine of Michael Ballack, and his deft touch and control yesterday left no doubt that he is a top talent.
Although Bosz is taking one game at a time as he balances the three competitions, the former Ajax head coach is looking forward to unleashing Havertz in Scotland.
He said: “Havertz is a good player. I can tell you that. I hope the Rangers fans see how good he is! Rangers are fantastic club. Playing at Ibrox looks wonderful.”
Bosz watched highlights of Rangers’ victory over Braga last Wednesday while he was preparing his side for their 3-1 victory over Porto the following night.
The former Dutch international, however, has a peculiar way of working and insisted that he would be going crazy if he had to think about facing Steven Gerrard’s side.
He said: “I haven’t focused on Rangers yet because I’ve been focusing on other teams before we play against them. When Rangers were in Braga we were in Porto and we saw some highlights from the game but I haven’t seen it really.
“We played Porto, then an important game in Leipzig. Now we have the cup game. Then we play Frankfurt in the league. And then I will focus on Rangers. I know some things about them because I love football but not enough it analyse the team.
“This is my way of working. I don’t look too far away. If I don’t do that I become crazy! I couldn’t focus on Leipzig because we had Porto. I only had two days to focus on Leipzig.
“I am a coach who only looks from game to game. It doesn’t help me to look so far ahead. Today we wanted to win the game. Starting tomorrow, we will prepare for the DFB Cup game against Union Berlin, which is very important to us. Of course we want to get ahead.”
Leverkusen were without captain Lars Bender, but Bosz expects him to be fit to face Rangers next week. The 30-year-old suffered a bruised leg last week in Portugal and had to be subbed off at halftime in the convincing victory over Porto.
Bosz said: “Lars Bender was unable to play today. We have to wait and see how it looks on Wednesday. It’s not a bad thing, but he still couldn’t play. ”