Rangers manager Philippe Clement has praised the bravery of his players as he criticises the SPFL for allowing a Celtic Park fan lockout.
The Gers were ultimately defeated 2-1 at Parkhead but with some questionable refereeing and not a bluenose in sight, there was a sense of injustice on the day.
Celtic once again were given carte blanche to engineer the match in their favour by refusing an allocation to Rangers after rejecting their Ibrox allocation earlier in the season.
It had a clear influence on the game and Rangers manager Philippe Clement has been speaking about his feelings on the situation in the post-match.
Philippe Clement calls out SPFL
This was always going to be a tough challenge for the Rangers squad given the club were denied their right to bring away fans to the fixture.
Despite an SPFL board ruling going in Rangers’ favour, a lack of Parkhead evidence prevented the governing body confirming a reasonable amount of tickets for the game.
Speaking to RangersTV after the match, Philippe Clement called out the SPFL in comments which will resonate with Rangers fans.
“I think our players showed a lot of good things today,” said Clement. “They showed braveness, they showed character, they showed quality also.
“It’s a game where we had more shots than Celtic in an away game without any supporters allowed, which is a really strange thing.
“That a federation allows that, that a team can decide who is coming in or not.
“So the players showed a lot of good things, we had a few moments that we made mistakes and that’s part of football.”
Rangers manager questions Celtic decisions
Speaking about what happened on the pitch, the Rangers manager has also had some gripes about the appalling refereeing in the game.
Praising Celtic for being “clinical” before describing Kyogo Furuhashi’s goal as “world class” the Ibrox boss was also gracious in defeat.
But a stonewall penalty incident in the first period – where Alistair Johnston touched the ball away from Abdallah Sima – has rankled the Rangers manager.
“Celtic was today really clinical to take these moments,” said Clement. “Like the first goal, we have to hit this ball away to the side instead of to the centre, they score out of that.
“Also with the red card we need to avoid these situations, we know.
“And the second goal, it’s a world-class goal, not much to do against that but it’s also not that these things happen every week.
“Those circumstances were not on our side but for me the worst thing is that we didn’t get this penalty in the first half.
“I still don’t understand why we didn’t get this handball, because it’s a really clear handball and if I see during half-time how he touches the ball clearly with the arm and Abdallah (Sima) is gone.
“So I don’t understand that one.”
Celtic stretch their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to eight points with the victory, although Rangers can cut the gap to two if they win their two games in hand in the new year.
