Clement Embraces Celtic Clash: “A Good Thing”
Rangers manager Philippe Clement has welcomed the prospect of facing Celtic in the Premier Sports League Cup Final on December 15, despite his side’s recent struggles.
Clement’s Ibrox outfit trails Celtic and Aberdeen by nine points in the Premiership, having suffered three defeats and a draw in their opening 10 games. However, the Belgian boss remains optimistic.
“It’s a big challenge. The biggest in Scotland. That’s also a good thing. It’s the next step to take to win this Cup again,” Clement said.
Rangers’ path to the final was far from convincing, as they came from behind to beat Motherwell 2-1 in the semifinals. Cyriel Dessers and Nedim Bajrami scored crucial goals to overturn Andy Halliday’s opener.
Clement acknowledged the pressure mounting on his team but emphasized the importance of self-belief. “We feel the pressure that we hate to lose, so the pressure is out of ourselves. We want to react. We want to be better.”
The Rangers boss praised his team’s resilience, saying: “This needs to be also a reference game for this new squad… To do what we’ve been doing a lot last season and it’s to dig in and in every situation, to keep our belief, to keep going, to keep fighting if we go behind.”
Celtic, meanwhile, stormed into the final with a 6-0 demolition of Aberdeen, courtesy of Daizen Maeda’s hat-trick and goals from Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kyogo Furuhashi, and Nicolas Kuhn.
Clement’s Rangers will need to improve significantly to challenge Celtic’s dominance. The December 15 showdown promises to be an intriguing encounter.
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