Philippe Clement claimed Rangers’ resounding victory over Steaua Bucharest was the perfect tonic after their dismal start to the season.
The Ibrox side rebounded from their Premiership loss at Kilmarnock last Sunday by putting four goals past the Romanian champions without reply.
Edged ahead through Tom Lawrence’s early strike, Rangers were two-nil up at the break through Vaclav Cerny. The Ibrox side’s best performer on the night, Cerny added a third after the break with substitute Hamza Igamane netting his first goal for Clement’s side to complete the scoring.
The win sees Rangers move on to six points after three matches in the Europa League ahead of away games against Olympiacos and Nice. After an inconsistent start to the term that’s seen them spill eight Premiership points and sustain European defeats to Dynamo Kyiv and Lyon, Clement felt last night’s win was the perfect pick-me-up for his players.
‘We were all sick of losing,’ said Clement. ‘The players, the staff, everybody was disappointed about that.
‘We wanted to stand up together and that’s what they’ve been doing. It’s good also that it was in this way, because it’s in Europe.
Philippe Clement was pleased with a Europa League display that showed Rangers’ potential
Clement shows his appreciation to Vaclav Cerny when the Czech winger is substituted
Clement said he had no issues with striker Cyriel Dessers who left the field without permission
‘Somebody told me also it’s more than 20 years ago that Rangers won a group stage game with four goals difference.
‘I still see a lot of things that we can improve in this game, but I’m happy that everybody can see there’s potential in this squad.
‘Like I’ve been saying the last weeks and months, we need time to get everything together and to get better and better.’
Clement was effusive in his praise of two-goal hero Cerny after the Czech put a difficult few weeks behind him.
‘Who’s not being criticised? That’s part of being at his level,’ said the Belgian. ‘Two weeks ago, straight after the Lyon game, he was criticised. He had a big chance in Malmo also. He was the most disappointed person I think in all Glasgow about missing those chances because he knows his quality.
‘We know his quality also. He has all my confidence because he’s not only a really good player, but also somebody who’s working really hard for the team.’
Clement said he had no issue with Cyriel Dessers after the forward bizarrely left the field of play in the second half without his permission.
‘Cyriel got a knock or a finger in his eye or something in his eye, so he lost sight,’ the manager explained.
‘He could not see good anymore. He was quite emotional about it because he wanted to stay on the pitch, but he didn’t see anything, so he ran off the pitch. That was a really strange moment for me, but he apologised after the game.
‘It’s better to sit down and give time for your team-mate to come in. It was in the emotions of wanting to win, wanting to react, wanting to play well, what he was doing also in the game. (I’ve) no problems with that, but it’s a good lesson for this young squad in that way, to take every moment in a really professional way.’
Meanwhile, Steaua boss Elias Charamboulou claimed referee Marco di Bello apologised to him for disallowing an early goal.
The Italian blew for a foul when keeper Jack Butland was robbed of the ball inside two minutes to let winger David Miculescu tap into an empty net.
But Charalambous said: ‘The game might have been very different if the referee had made the right decision on the goal. I spoke to him at half-time and he apologised. He said he should have waited before whistling, so VAR could have helped with the decision and I respect him for that.’