fbpx Skip to main content

Rangers manager Philippe Clement praised his side for keeping their heads while around were losing theirs at Easter Road.

On the back of a 2-2 draw with Benfica on Thursday night in Lisbon, Rangers comfortably negotiated their way to Hampden after a 2-0 win over a Hibs side who ended the game with ten men.

And Clement did not mince his words as he reacted to the two calls to dismiss Jordan Obita and Nathan Moriah-Welsh inside three frantic second-half minutes.

“My team stayed cool also in some heated moments, which was also important to do,” said the Ibrox boss.

“If you put a hand or an arm in the face you can get a yellow, that everybody knows. The tackle [Moriah-Welsh] was a few yards away from me.

“It is a reckless tackle with the studs in front and it doesn’t matter then if you break a leg or not. It is just reckless. I think it is important to get that kind of tackle out of the game because we have seen the last couple of weeks sometimes when we didn’t get the red card.

“I was not happy about that also that moment. I think it is not good for Scottish football, English football, Belgian football, German football, tackles like that. Players need to know if you tackle like that you get a red card. It is for nobody good because it is a danger to injure someone if you go in like that.

“I think it is good for the game that all the players understand that is not the way you tackle because you endanger your opponent and nobody wants to get tackles like that. The same like the story of the elbows in the past in the times that I was playing, you didn’t get red cards for that. It happened also much more.

“Now this is almost out of the game because everybody knows if I do it I risk a red card. I think it benefits every player, every manager and every club that these things go out of football.”

Clement’s headache now is on the availability of players ahead of Thursday night’s second-leg  Europa League tie against Benfica.

Dujon Sterling was forced off in the first-half while his replacement, Ross McCausland, also then had to go off.

“I am not a doctor,” he said.

“It is a pity sometimes this season. I would like to be a doctor sometimes but we have a really good one who is a really clear in his assessment all the time. But I cannot say now and he cannot say now. We will examine them in the next two days to see what is going on. It is dangerous for me to say it is serious or it is not serious if it is not the truth. I always want to say the truth.”

Ryan Jack was not in the squad for the win over Hibs after picking up a knock against Benfica when he came off the bench on Thursday night.

“I cannot say how long yet but he took a knock against Benfica and has a muscle problem now,” said Clement. “I cannot say anything about how long. Of course I wanted him back to give him minutes today but that was not the case so we will see. Thursday and the weeks after I do not know.”

 

Get Instant Access To The Latest Football News To Your Phone