LEVERKUSEN CITY BOSSES BRUSH ASIDE VIRUS FEARS

LEVERKUSEN city officials are confident Rangers’ Europa League clash in Germany will get the goahead, despite concerns the game will have to be played behind closed doors because of the deadly coronavirus.

Steven Gerrard’s side face Bayer Leverkusen in the last-16 tie with the second leg due to be played later this month in the city’s BayArena.

But coronavirus has spread to the North Rhine-Westphalia state where Leverkusen are based, with 14 confirmed cases there and over

1,000 people quarantined.

German FA doctor Tim Meyer revealed this week that he couldn’t rule out closed-doors games later in the month. He stated: ‘No one can seriously predict what the situation will be in a week or two.’

But Leverkusen city chiefs insist it will be business as usual.

A spokesman said: ‘The administration of this city would like to reassure our citizens that there are no plans to cancel any cultural or sporting events or restrict attendance.

‘Of course, we are keeping a close eye on hygiene measures, but we don’t expect serious disruption at present.’

Meanwhile, Leverkusen have been labelled one of the favourites to win the Europa League by Porto boss Sergio Conceicao, who lost out to both them and Rangers this season.

The German side dumped Porto out of the Europa League after a 3-1 win in Portugal for a 5-2 aggregate result.

Porto have also faced Rangers twice this season with Steven Gerrard’s men winning in Glasgow following a creditable draw away.

But Conceicao believes it will be a tough ask for Rangers, saying: ‘Bayer Leverkusen are an extremely strong team and certainly the best we have faced in this competition. In my opinion, they are one of the strong favourites to win the Europa League.

‘We had to attack them and, unfortunately, that played into their hands. They were extremely quick on the counter-attack. They were too fast and skilful for us.

‘They also play in the best league in the world, in my view.’