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Philippe Clement claimed Jefte’s dismissal in Rangers 2-0 Champions League qualifying defeat by Dynamo Kyiv was “the worst decision I have seen in more than 30 years in football”.
Gers’ new Brazilian signing Jefte, making his first start for the Light Blues and booked in the first half, was sent off by Italian referee Marco Guida in the 51st minute after picking up a second yellow for an aerial challenge on Oleksandr Karavaiev.
Following a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their third qualifier in Poland last week, Rangers rallied and tried to force the issue but two goals in two minutes late in the game from second-half substitutes Oleksandr Pikhalyonok and Nazar Voloshyn fired the Ukrainian side to a 3-1 aggregate with the Ibrox side dropping into the much less lucrative Europa League phase.
“I saw images and it is clear in football that sometimes it is a grey zone and because of that VAR is there and it helps to make football more honest,” Clement said.
“But the decision was nothing to do with grey zone. It was really clear, there was nothing going on.
“Jefte jumps higher, he doesn’t move his hand, his arm is next to his body, it is nothing.
“I try to understand the decision and ask but the referee stuck to his opinion, it was a clear foul and a second yellow and a red. I am confident his bosses will have another idea.
“I can’t say it killed the dream at that moment, because the players kept going with 10 to counter-attack, we were dominating before that and creating chances and they are a good team but you saw them getting tired and we knew we would get better chances.
“The players kept on believing but then they got the goal at the end and then we tried to force it and they got the second.
“It is a very decisive moment and in the end it has killed the dream of the dressing room and killed the dream of more 50,000 fans and you expect a better level of decision-making.
“This is the worst decision I have seen in more than 30 years of football. I have a lot of things in my head but you guys know if I say too much I can get a ban so let’s keep things in my head. I need to be good and smart for the club and the team and we need to move on and take positive lessons from the two games.”
Clement was unclear as to the severity of the injury to left-back Ridvan Yilmaz, who was taken from the field on a stretcher in the second half.
Rangers skipper James Tavernier was as puzzled as his boss about Jefte’s sending off.
The right-back said: “It’s obviously disappointing to not get the chance to go to the next round and try to play to go into the Champions League.
“We’re obviously still in Europe, the Europa League, but during the game the decision changes the whole dynamics of the game.
“I spoke to him [the referee] as it happened. He explained that it was an elbow in the face. Looking back at it during game time, he gets up really early. I thought it wasn’t even a free kick. I thought he got up early. There’s no malice to what he’s done.
“It’s a 50-50 ball that’s going up in the air. Jefte gets up really early. He beats him in the air. I don’t know how much contact there is.
“Obviously that makes a big difference. We’ll obviously look back at this and we have to brush it off quickly. We’ve got another game on the weekend.
“We’ll look at the lessons that we can take from it. Then we’ll brush ourselves off and we’ve got to go again.”
Oleksandr Shovkovskyi’s men will play RB Salzburg in the next round and the Kyiv boss said: “Congratulations all the Kyiv supporters for this important win against a very difficult opposition.
“Thanks for the emotions we experienced, they were a great team and they applied pressure but Kyiv had their own tasks and followed the plan. We were ready for anything thar came our way.”
