Philippe Clement says it was a ‘major thing’ to see his Rangers side come back from a goal down to earn a great point away to Olympiacos in the Europa League.
The Rangers boss got his tactics spot on, not something he’s managed to do consistently of late, as Cyriel Dessers’ equaliser moved the Ibrox side onto seven points in the league phase.
Dessers really should have converted twice beforehand in the first-half but he wasn’t clinical enough.
And Clement thinks Rangers really should have been coming away with a win as a result of those big chances but nevertheless, he thought the performance was good.
Clement reacts to Rangers drawing with Olympiacos
Speaking to RangersTV after the game, Clement said: “The performance deserved more than the point. But it was a good performance and the team stuck to the plan for 90 minutes, they worked really hard.
“Without the ball, we played a really good defensive game against Olympiacos who normally create a lot of chances. We almost didn’t give away anything.
“Okay, that’s a pity (the Olympiacos goal) with one chance, you see the quality there when they scored the goal. But our reaction was good and that’s a major thing for our new squad to learn these lessons.
“We had this with the old squad last season where we picked up this mentality of never giving up and digging in when the result don’t go our way and that’s the mentality I want to see every time.
“I’m happy. They are feeling it now, they felt it in the semi-final of the cup when we went behind. It’s about continuing working hard to get a result and force a result.
“It would have been the perfect evening if we scored the second goal which we deserved also I think.”
Clement on ‘massive’ Rangers midfield
Nicolas Raskin and Connor Barron were easily the two best players on the park for Rangers as they controlled the centre of midfield.
Ally McCoist on TNT Sports picked out Belgian destroyer Raskin who put in a mammoth shift to recycle possession for Rangers and deliver much-needed energy for the side.
While Marvin Bartley thought Barron was the ‘star man’ in Greece and thought the former Aberdeen midfielder was a joy to watch.
Clement tipped his hat to the pair without mentioning them directly and said the midfield contribution against Olympiacos was ‘massive’.
Clement said: “Everybody was working really hard for the team, the defenders and midfield. The midfield was massive in winning duels but also our attacking players did their job for 90 minutes long – and that has to be our basics for the rest of the season.”
