Borna Barisic may be one of the most potent attacking full-backs in European football right now – but he’ll need to be just as handy at the other end when Rangers take on Royal Antwerp in the Europa League round of 32.
Fortunately, the Glasgow giants are no strangers to the tricky little right-winger who will look to bamboozle Barisic with a burst of acceleration and a flurry of stepovers.
According to Voetbal Nieuws, Rangers were interested in signing Manuel Benson during the summer.
Less than a year after those reports emerged, Antwerp’s £2.7 million record signing will head to Ibrox with a place in the latter stages of a major European competition on the line.
And the opportunity to show Rangers what they’re missing will surely put another spring in Benson’s already supple step.
“He is a very technical attacking player. It is not easy to find players with similar characteristics,” Patrick de Koster, Benson’s agent, told FCInterNews last year when the winger was linked with Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan.
De Koster even went so far as to liken his client with a four-time Champions League winner who, when making that £86 million move from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid six years ago, became the most expensive footballer in history.
“(Benson is like) Gareth Bale – quick, fast, with a knack of finding the net. Manuel has a way of playing that resembles that of the Real Madrid player.”
Benson failed to outshine Bale during Antwerp’s 2-0 defeat to Tottenham last week. It was the Welshman’s stunning, swerving, 30-yard bullet of a free-kick that set Spurs on their way to three more group-stage points after all.
But the quicksilver winger, with his electrifying pace and confidence on the ball, did enough during 72 minutes in north London to suggest Rangers will need to be on their guard come February.
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