Philippe Clement claimed Rangers’ emphatic victory over Steaua Bucharest was the perfect tonic after their dismal start to the season.
The Ibrox side bounced back from their Premiership defeat to Kilmarnock last Sunday by beating the Romanian champions with four unanswered goals.
Rangers took the lead thanks to an early goal from Tom Lawrence and went into half-time with a two-nil lead thanks to Vaclav Cerny.
Cerny, the Ibrox team’s best player that night, added the third after the break, and substitute Hamza Igamane scored his first goal for Clement’s team to complete the scoring.
With the victory, Rangers have six points after three games in the Europa League before away games against Olympiacos and Nice.
Philippe Clement was pleased with a Europa League performance that showed Rangers’ potential
After an inconsistent start to the season that saw them drop eight points in the Premiership and suffer European defeats to Dynamo Kyiv and Lyon, Clement felt last night’s win was the perfect boost for his players.
“We were all sick of losing,” Clement said. “The players, the staff, everyone was disappointed by that.
‘We wanted to rise together and that’s what they’ve been doing. It’s also good that it was like this, because it is in Europe.
Clement shows his gratitude to Vaclav Cerny after replacing the Czech winger
Clement said he had no problems with striker Cyriel Dessers leaving the field without permission.
“Someone also told me that it was more than 20 years ago that Rangers won a group stage match by four goals.
“I still see a lot of things we can improve in this game, but I’m happy that everyone can see that there is potential in this team.”
“As I’ve been saying the last few weeks and months, we need time to put everything together and 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 is not criticized? That’s part of being at his level,” said the Belgian. “Two weeks ago, immediately after the Lyon game, he was criticized. He also had a great opportunity in Malmo. I think he was the most disappointed person in all of Glasgow to lose those opportunities because you know their quality.
‘We also know its quality. “He has all my confidence because he is not only a very good player, but also someone who is working very hard for the team.”
Clement said he had no problem with Cyriel Dessers after the striker strangely left the field of play in the second half without his permission.
“Cyriel received a blow or a finger in the eye or something in the eye, so he lost his sight,” the manager explained.
‘I couldn’t see well anymore. He got very excited because he wanted to stay on the field, but he didn’t see anything and ran off the field. It was a really strange moment for me, but he apologized after the game.
“It’s better to sit back and give your teammate time to come in. It was in the emotions of wanting to win, wanting to react, wanting to play well, which he was also doing in the game. (I have) no problems with that, but “It’s a good lesson for this young team in that sense, to take every moment in a really professional way.”
Meanwhile, Steaua coach Elias Charamboulou claimed referee Marco di Bello apologized to him for disallowing an early goal.
The Italian committed a foul when goalkeeper Jack Butland was robbed of the ball after two minutes to allow winger David Miculescu to hit the empty net.
But Charalambous said: “The match could have been very different if the referee had made the right decision on the goal.” I spoke to him at half-time and he apologized. “He said he should have waited before blowing the whistle, so VAR could have helped with the decision and I respect him for that.”