Lars reckons Rangers got off so lightly in Germany
BY ALAN MARSHALL
BAYER LEVERKUSEN skipper Lars Bender reckons his side could and should have hammered Rangers as they cruised through Thursday night’s Europa League tie.
The German side will now face Inter Milan on Monday in the quarter-finals of the competition after a 4-1 aggregate win against Steven Gerrard’s side.
Leverkusen ended up winning 1-0 fairly comfortably at the Bay Arena.
However, German international Bender reckons that result flattered Rangers.
He insisted the scoreline on the night didn’t do them justice and said: “We clearly should have scored more goals against Rangers.
“We had plenty of chances to make it a more convincing win.
“Our playing condition was certainly not good but we had the right approach to the game.
“The lesson learned is that we have to take more of our chances against the better teams in this competition.
“The last few months have been very difficult, so Rangers were a potentially difficult opponent.
“But we dealt with them professionally and the important thing was to qualify and not pick up any injuries.
“Inter Milan are clearly at a higher level and have players like Romelu Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez and Christian Eriksen. But perhaps it is an advantage that it’s a knock-out game.”
And Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah was thrilled at the comfortable qualification.
He said: “We dominated the game and easily deserved to win.
“This is now a very exciting tournament and we can’t wait to play Inter in the next round.”