BULLDOZED BY BURKE & CO

Rangers are flattened in the Leipzig snow as Oliver finds the target for Bundesliga aces

FOR Oliver Burke, an invitation to shine in front of a Scottish audience was always going to be too good to turn down. Rangers and their sizeable travelling support were simply left to admire what £13million gets you these days.

The 19-year-old winger has required patience since making his record move to Germany in August. Substitute appearances have been the norm. Handed a rare start in this friendly played in sub-zero conditions, Burke did not let the opportunity pass him by as he helped lead a Red Bull charge.

An exquisitely taken goal put Leipzig two in front before the break, when it was decided his work was done. In this instance, 45 minutes was enough to remind anyone of the vast potential that lurks within his athletic frame.

There was no shame in Rangers being unable to handle him or Timo Werner, the almost equally youthful scorer of RB Leipzig’s first.

Having a combined cost in excess of £20m, this dynamic pair showed all the energy their paymasters’ premier product is supposed to supply.

What is beyond dispute is that the Austrian-based drinks empire has provided significant enough funding to assemble a sparkling team.

Second place in the Bundesliga is always likely to trump second place in the Scottish Premiership. And so it proved.

Yussuf Poulsen’s two second-half additions merely confirmed the huge gulf in resources.

Mark Warburton boarded the flight home knowing his side had been given a strenuous workout ahead of their season resuming on Saturday.

Mistakes that can drift away in a domestic setting were ruthlessly punished here.

New loan signings Jon Toral and Emerson Hyndman both made their debuts, getting a half each.

Toral showed a couple of exquisite touches during his stint and was perhaps unfortunate to have a goal chalked off by an offside flag. By the time Hyndman entered the fray, it was a case of keeping the score down.

The locals were somewhat bemused at the huge size of the travelling support, shivering in the snow.

The official contingent numbered 8,000, making it the biggest number of away fans in the ground this season. Others had made the trip without tickets, simply anxious to experience a continental trip after five-and-a-half years without European football.

A primary aim for Warburton is, of course, to ensure the Ibrox club are back on that stage next season, preferably by clinching second place. But achieving that goal would potentially create logistical challenges.

Rangers begin their Scottish Cup campaign with a home tie against Motherwell this weekend.

Going on to reach the final for a second successive season would leave them with just a month off before the Europa League qualifiers kick in on June 29.

Juggling time off and pre-season preparations would clearly be problematic.

That is a thought for the future, though. In eastern Germany, it was about getting back to business after the shutdown that followed a 2-1 Old Firm defeat on Hogmanay.

Rangers could actually have gone in front as early as the first minute, but Kenny Miller botched a chance to play Barrie McKay clear in on goal.

From there on, however, the hosts always had the greater attacking threat during a first half played at a reasonable tempo.

Davie Selke twice struck at goal before RB Leipzig claimed a 21st-minute lead.

A misplaced header from Clint Hill was at the root of the concession. Marcel Sabitzer gathered possession and immediately speared a pass through the centre of the Rangers backline for Werner.

Regarded as one of the fastest players in the Bundesliga, the 20-year-old zipped past Wes Foderingham to angle a shot goalwards. It looked as though Danny Wilson would keep it out but he could not make sufficient contact on the slide and the ball rolled over the line.

Werner joined Leipzig from VfB Stuttgart for a reported €10million in June of last year. The incisiveness shown explained why such a fee was deemed good business.

Burke cost even more when he arrived from Nottingham Forest two months later. Both acquisitions show a willingness to invest in youth, a strategy Die Roten Bullen hope will extend their extraordinary rise well into the future.

So far, their progress has won them few friends. Hardcore supporters of other Bundesliga clubs bitterly resent the extension of the Red Bull corporate brand into a league where people power is still supposed to hold sway over corporatism.

However, to dismiss them as ‘11 performing cans’ — as Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke did earlier this season — is to ignore the shrewdness that has partnered the influx of energy drink funding.

It may be no romantic fairytale but there is still much to admire in the methods deployed. RB Leipzig were effectively formed in 2009 when Red Bull bought the license for SSV Markranstadt, a fifth-tier team from the eastern German region of Saxony, and began the process of renaming and rebranding.

Four subsequent promotions have planted them alongside the elite of German football. And they have looked anything but out of place since getting there last summer. Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team entered the winter break just three points adrift of superpower Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich. As the ultras from Dortmund, Hamburg and elsewhere have railed against their presence, RB Leipzig have got on with the business of winning matches. The money paid for Burke was a signal of their intent. Although he has taken time to adapt to his new surroundings, his pace and power remain undimmed. From a Scottish perspective, the obvious hope is that he plays a more prominent role in the second half of the Bundesliga season and can transfer that confidence into aiding an ailing World Cup bid. His exit was one of four alterations to the RB Leipzig side at the interval, a tally mirrored by Rangers.

By then, Toral had poked a shot into the net only to see the assistant referee flag for an offside against Josh Windass. It looked a very tight call.

Hyndman replaced Toral, while Matt Gilks, Lee Hodson and Martyn Waghorn were called upon to replace Foderingham, James Tavernier and Windass.

It was no surprise that Gilks became the busiest of the newcomers.

Twice, he made smart saves to thwart Naby Keita — one of the home substitutes — before RB Leipzig notched a third goal after 63 minutes.

Again, a seemingly small error carried sizeable consequences.

Jason Holt lost the ball in midfield and allowed Keita to feed the outstanding Werner. His cross was polished off by Poulsen.

RB Leipzig applied a similar structure to the final entry on the scoreline with ten minutes remaining.

Another Keita throughball cut open Rangers, with Poulsen finishing Dominik Franke’s centre.

2 The travelling Rangers fans saw two players make their debuts for the Ibrox club, with loan signings Jon Toral and Emerson Hyndman getting a half each in Leipzig