Philippe Clement claimed that the decision to award Jefte a second yellow card in Dynamo Kyiv loss was the worst refereeing decision he has seen in ‘more than 30 years in football’.
Rangers were dumped out of the Champions League at the third round of qualifying after going 2-0 to the Ukrainian side following a quickfire brace of goals inside the final 10 minutes from substitutes Oleksander Pikhalyonok and Nazar Voloshyn.
The turning point came five minutes into the second period when Rangers’ summer recruit was shown red.
The Brazilian went up for a challenge with Oleksandr Karavaiev and looked to be extremely unfortunate to be given his marching orders by referee Marco Guida.
Gers boss Clement was left stunned by the decision:
“I saw images and it is clear in football that sometimes it is a grey zone and because of that VAR is there and it helps to make football more honest, But the decision was nothing to do with grey zone. It was really clear, there was nothing going on” he said.
“Jefte jumps higher, he doesn’t move his hand, his arm is next to his body, it is nothing.
“I try to understand the decision and ask but the referee stuck to his opinion, it was a clear foul and a second yellow and a red. I am confident his bosses will have another idea.
“It is a very decisive moment and in the end it has killed the dream of the dressing room and killed the dream of more 50,000 fans and you expect a better level of decision-making.
“This is the worst decision I have seen in more than 30 years of football
Ridvan Yilmaz left the field on a stretcher with 15 left to play, a worrying sight for Clement as he seemed to go down after unleashing a shot.
Rangers will now miss out on the riches that come with making the Champions League and will drop directly in the Europa League group stages.
