£100m man will be the main threat to Rangers
BAYER Leverkusen boss Peter Bosz hopes that star man Kai Havertz will show Rangers fans exactly why he is being linked with a £100million move to some of Europe’s top clubs.
The 20-year-old has become a key player for the Bundesliga side, who travel to Glasgow next Thursday to face Steven Gerrard’s team in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 clash.
In so doing, the young German has attracted attention from the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
Now the Ibrox side are about to find out what he can do, with Havertz (below) having been described as combining the technique of Mesut Ozil with the engine of Michael Ballack.
He proved pivotal again for Bosz’s team yesterday, setting up the opener for Jamaican Leon Bailey as they drew 1-1 with Julian Nagelsmann’s RB Leipzig in the Red Bull Arena.
It extended Leverkusen’s unbeaten run to seven matches, albeit they will have been baffled over how they didn’t take all three points even after Patrik Schick equalised.
Leverkusen have another two matches before they face Rangers, hosting Union Berlin in the German Cup on Wednesday before Frankfurt travel to the BayArena in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Although Bosz is taking it one game at a time as he balances the three competitions, the former Ajax head coach is looking forward to unleashing Havertz in front of a Scottish audience.
‘Havertz is a good player, I can tell you that,’ said the 56-year-old.
‘I hope the Rangers fans see how good he is. Rangers are fantastic club, and playing at Ibrox looks wonderful.’
Bosz watched highlights of Rangers’ victory over Braga in Portugal last Wednesday night while he was preparing his side for their 3-1 victory over Porto the following night.
But the former Dutch international says he won’t be driving himself crazy thinking about the capabilities of an Ibrox side who have overachieved in Europe while doing the opposite domestically. ‘I haven’t focused on Rangers yet because I’ve been focusing on other teams before we play against them,’ said Bosz. ‘When Rangers were in Braga, we were in Porto and we saw some highlights from the game, but I haven’t seen (much of) it, really. I know some things about them because I love football but not enough to analyse the team. ‘This is my way of working. I don’t look too far (into the future). If I 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.’ Leipzig’s stadium is a tough venue for any team to visit, but Bosz’s side never looked like losing against the team who are second in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen remain fifth in the table as they target Champions League qualification, which would require a top-four finish. ‘I was satisfied (with our performance) in the first half,’ noted the Leverkusen manager. ‘We tried to put pressure on them, to play dominantly and we had good chances. It was boring in the second half, but if you play a draw against a very good team, we can also be satisfied.’ Rangers could hardly be facing a Leverkusen side in better form. Yesterday was the first time in seven matches that they have failed to win. That sequence included two victories over Porto in the Europa League and a swashbuckling 4-3 win over highflying Borussia Dortmund. They were without captain Lars Bender for yesterday’s match, but Bosz expects the right-back to be fit to face the Light Blues next week. The 30-year-old suffered a bruised leg last week in Portugal and had to be replaced at half-time in the convincing victory over Rangers’ group-stage opponents. Bosz said: ‘Lars Bender was unable to play today. We have to wait and see how it looks on Wednesday.’