Rangers are preparing to travel to Germany for their Euro face-off against Bayer Leverkusen knowing that they’ve already got a mountain to climb.
The Ibrox side must score three goals against one of Germany’s leading Bundesliga sides if they’re to progress to the Europa League quarter-finals.
It’s a task which would be made considerably harder and a mountain made considerably taller by losing the competition’s top goalscorer, Alfredo Morelos.
Alfie has hit 14 goals in total (six in the competition proper) as the record breaker was officially recognised by UEFA for scoring the most European goals in the first half of a season.
This has been a large part of the reason why the powerful Colombian forward has been linked with a megabucks move to Ligue 1 and Lille.
Rangers are said to have rejected a £13.7m move from the ambitious French side for the player with reports in Scotland expecting an £18m move anytime now.
Lille’s president Gerard Lopez said last week that their squad building would take place over the course of the next fortnight, suggesting the threat of a Lille bid landing before Leverkusen is a very real one.
However, Steven Gerrard, Rangers and perhaps even Alfredo Morelos himself will be holding out for the striker to travel to Germany and give the Gers the best possible chance of winning.
If Rangers are serious about trying to make a fist of it in Germany, they’ve got to tell Lille it’s hands-off their star forward before they arrive back in the UK.
Doing so could be the difference in this Rangers side getting an extended holiday in central Europe beyond next Thursday.
